Baroque religious music was composed and performed to stimulate devotion as well as the inspire passion through the theatricality of the religious ritual including the processional arrangements which worked in tandem with the performance practices based on strong emotional delivery. The current project aimed to re-imagine historical emotional affect through a pasticcio performance of Baroque works focused on the Easter Passion and Resurrection delivering the narrative with enactment. The project was also conceived to deliver broader social justice messages allied to displaced and misunderstood peoples of different religious and cultural backgrounds. In this paper, the audience is invited to spectate a performance of Passion, Lament, Glory, staged at St Paul’s Cathedral, Melbourne just before Easter 2017. They are invited to share in the background to the work and read about audience responses to the live performance. These responses are reflected upon in terms of the empathic, cathartic and applied outcomes of the performance on the audience.
The performance explored in this paper aimed to impact its audiences by stimulating a deep emotional response and critical reflection on some specific aspects of the inequities in society. Its focus was racial and religious conflict and persecution as represented through the narrative of the Passion of Christ. Further to this, the work coincidentally aimed to re-invigorate aspects of musical and theatrical rhetoric stemming from the baroque repertoire that comprised the performance materials. It was a practice-led research project in which the current author, as artistic director, worked with the designer and cast in the development of the staging of the work, and the musical director in the delivery of the music. As this paper will reveal, the cast worked with a historical and modern social justice agenda underpinning their dramaturgical work, and also engaged historically-informed music performance practices. The audience, by contrast, revealed a range of responses to the work. Some were acutely aware of the modern parallels between the Passion of Christ and the religious persecutions and conflicts of modern society. For many, the visceral power of the performance itself touched them, and reported being moved to tears at several points. Another group was mainly affected by the ‘beauty’ of baroque music. There were some who were upset by having to queue to get into the performance. The reader is asked to reflect on these different responses in their own sampling of the work as experienced in a video recording of one of the performances.
In mid-December 2016, bomb threats circulated the Internet, targeting several sites in
the City of Melbourne. Among the named buildings was St Paul’s, the Anglican Cathedral,
located in the heart of the Central Business District. Fortunately, the intimidation was
not realised, as follow-up events included the apprehension of four men suspected of
being part of the bomb plot. The media reported these arrests in terms of one religious
group pitting itself against the other, one culture standing against another in terms of
good and evil (
The Dean of Melbourne and St Paul's Cathedral, The Reverend Dr Andreas Loewe, was
reported in
‘St Paul's is one of Melbourne's most iconic religious buildings, a symbol of faith in our city and we work very hard to promote a degree of reconciliation between different faith communities in our city’.
‘I believe this [the bombing threat] may well cast fears in peoples' hearts and minds
and may well also point the finger at particular groups and I would want to encourage
the people of Melbourne to enjoy their Christmas celebrations and to promote the
values that Christmas stands for’ (
My reading of the Dean’s statement was a directive to pursue the peace, hope, and goodwill messages of Christmas and importantly, to reflect on the climate of fear and accusation he had identified.
St Paul’s has a huge banner strung across its façade that reads, “Let’s fully welcome refugees” (see Figure 1). In a country where deportation and detention are fraught and complex issues in relation to the treatment of refugees, the banner signals that the diocese, clergy, and lay administrators actively support human rights, peace, and conciliation between peoples of different faiths and cultures. From a social and political viewpoint, Andreas Loewe’s words are sentiments I share.
St Paul’s Cathedral, Melbourne. (Photo: St. Pauls Cathedral by Rob Deutscher CC BY 2.0)
As the December headlines hit the streets of Melbourne, Australia, I had just finalised a booking at St Paul’s for a performance project I was to produce on 31 March and 1 April 2017, two weeks before Easter. I had chosen St Paul’s because of the progressive ministry I had seen symbolised in that banner and its location in the heart of the city. My goal was to use Easter music and the narrative of the Passion of Christ set within the cathedral as a religious site to investigate racial and religious discrimination, conflict, and persecution. I am not sure how clear this agenda was when I pitched the project to the Dean, but he was enthusiastic about the collaboration between myself as a representative of the Music Conservatorium of Music (MCM) at the University of Melbourne and himself as a representative of the Cathedral, the Anglican community, and the City more broadly. He participated fully by offering to be part of the performance and provide a suitable text to recount John the Baptist’s version of the final days of Christ’s life.
Though I am not a practising Christian, I was raised in the Anglican tradition, so knew
that the Passion of Christ is understood in Christianity as God’s plan for the salvation
of humanity. It is taught that Jesus bore the guilt of human sins and died to pay our
penalty (Romans 5:8). Humans are redeemed, “but with the precious blood of Christ, like
that of a lamb without defect or blemish” (1 Peter 1:19). Jesus was, “wounded for our
transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us
whole, and by his bruises we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). This Christian narrative
presents an opportunity to reflect on human behaviours, especially those enacted in the
name of religion. Indeed, whether Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Jew, or Muslim, religions
broadly teach that compassion and respect are central to human interaction, with peace
and non-violence underpinning a ‘good’ life (
The performance project itself was developed to enact elements of the Passion of Christ
as it was portrayed in European music during the eighteenth century, specifically
through works by George Frideric Handel and Giovanni Battista Pergolesi. I chose this
specific music because it is highly popular in twenty-first century circulations of
religious music at Easter and is often performed in religious spaces. But, for me, its
emotional function often seems diluted by performer concerns about the technical
execution of the music, without much regard for the deep emotional intention of the
music and libretto together (
Handel’s “
I had first developed the enactment of Pergolesi’s
After Sheffield, the project was reformulated a couple of years later for work with an
opera company in theatres in Portugal. Then, on my own arrival to Australia, it was
performed in the Winthrop Hall in Perth, Western Australia — magnificent in its 20-metre
high ceilings and stunning stain glass windows. But, the site-specific value of the
religious context was missing and this seemed to diminish the impact of the work. So, it
was a great delight for me to return the production of the
A further reason for performing these works in the cathedral setting was owing to a
custom in sixteenth-century Germany, where, on the feast of the Ascension, an image of
Christ accompanied by angels and the Holy Spirit, was drawn up through the church tower
(Scribner, 1988, p. 128–129). I had already explored the imagery of angels, having used
a lyrical and beautiful choreography of a female aerialist high in the tower of both
Sheffield Cathedral and Winthrop Hall, but now, my intention was to have the actor
playing Jesus Christ travel up from the altar area of the Cathedral into the spire,
literally ascending through the heavens depicted in a brilliant golden mosaic on the
back wall of the spire. This desire to explore the dramatic potential of the performance
space was also underpinned by the principles of modern-day social and political theatre,
which aim to break down the fourth wall of the theatre and engage the audience as fully
in the drama as possible (
The production took 2 months to craft, working with six separate groups who came
together for the first time as a company the day before the opening performance. The
first group
The second group comprised those who sang the three choruses from
The third group comprised Dean Andreas Loewe and singer/actress, Heather Fletcher. Both delivered the text the Dean had written, which offered an account of Jesus’s final days by John the Baptist and one of the women who had attended the Crucifixion and Burial. Both actors prepared their dramatic texts and I then rehearsed with them in private and in the Cathedral before the performances.
The fourth group was for the
The fifth group comprised Tim Rutty, the actor/aerial artist who played Jesus Christ,
and two actors (Nathan Wright and Alastair Cooper-Golec) who were the soldiers
accompanying Tim through the enactment of some of the Stations of the Cross during the
Tim, Nathan and Alastair rehearsing in St Paul’s. (Photo: Erika Von Kaschke)
Tim and I work on the ‘Pieta’ tableau as the set is being constructed – we vary the mood, with a little chat, owing to the intensity of the rehearsal process. (Photo: Erika Von Kaschke)
The sixth group I worked with was the designer Matthew Adey, the production manager Paul
Doyle, and the production crew. Matt and I visited the Cathedral on several occasions in
the weeks leading up to the production and he attended rehearsals of the
To clarify the musical and narrative emotions this performance project aimed to
articulate, it is helpful to be appraised of the texts of each musical work. The
This translation is commonly used by British Catholics and comes from The World Prayers
Project (
In performance: Jacqueline Porter in silhouette, with the female supporters, and Mary in the background. Notice that the singers have the audience all around them. This gave the audience of 750 people the opportunity to be close to the action. (Photo: Sarah Walker)
Handel’s
“Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world,” (John 1:29), see Figure 5.
In performance: Tim Rutty as Jesus with the chorus embedded in the audience so when the music began, the singers emerged, to generate visceral audience response. (Photo: Sarah Walker)
“Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows! He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him”. (Isaiah 53: 4–5). Figure 6 shows an enactment of these words.
Jesus suffering. (Photo: Sarah Walker)
The action is embedded within the audience, and the chorus sings around them, enveloping them in the musico-dramatic experience, as Jesus is scourged. (Photo: Sarah Walker)
‘And with His stripes we are healed.’ (Isaiah 53:5)
The original author of the liturgical sequence
|
At the Cross her station keeping, |
This English translation by the Anglican clergyman Edward Casswall dates from 1849 (Casswall, 1849).
My production followed this text in considerable detail, aiming to represent the emotions depicted in the narrative, with Jesus being mounted onto a cross, dying, and then being resurrected and ascending to Heaven, see Figures 8-12.
The Crucifixion. (Photo: Sarah Walker)
The Vigil. (Photo: Sarah Walker)
Mary, played by Jordan Auld, searching for Jesus at the tomb. (Photo: Sarah Walker)
The Resurrection. (Photo: Sarah Walker)
The Ascension. (Photo: Sarah Walker)
In addition to these representative narrative elements of the Passion and Ascension of Christ, my Director’s program note suggested that the audience could approach “Passion, Lament, Glory” as a contemplative reflection on the long history of intercultural persecution. Discreet touches to hint as this included the veiled women deliberately concealing their identities until they heard the sad weeping of Mary (see Figures 13 and 14 below).
The opening of Salve Regina, with the veiled women, Ruth Blythman in full shot. (Photo: Sarah Walker)
The same women, revealing their deeply emotive response to the lines of the Salve Regina. (Photo: Sarah Walker)
Reflecting on the performance, it was my intention to create a highly emotive
representation of the music and text, and I hope this is captured in the film of the
live performance that can be accessed through the weblink indicated at the end of this
paper. While a thoroughly modern enactment, the rehearsal process was strongly founded
on discussion of eighteenth century performance practice, rhetoric and allied topics,
also the content of the New Testament as a historical and religious text. We also
discussed the ideas of persecuted peoples, and broader topics that arose as we worked
together. After the live performances, I was able to survey the audience members on
their experiences to provide feedback to this project.
Audience members were invited to complete Doherty’s (
It was a post-performance internet survey, so responses were low (only 40 respondents).
The age range was 18–84 years (
In terms of the first open-ended question, motivations for attending included having a family member in the performance, having a night out, religious reasons associated with the Lenten period, and loving one or more pieces of music in the program.
Table 1 displays the mean scores for Emotional Reaction to the performance, rated on a
Likert scale (1
Emotional Reaction | Rating |
---|---|
Pleased me | 4.37 |
Made me think | 4.03 |
Surprised me | 3.86 |
Made me sad | 3.46 |
Moved me to tears | 3.05 |
Made me happy | 3.03 |
Made me angry | 2.58 |
Frightened me | 2.08 |
Made me laugh | 2.08 |
Pearson’s two-tailed correlations were used to explore the relationship between Emotion
Reaction ratings and the audience’s Emotional Contagion scores that captured
respondents’ empathy in terms of Happiness, Love, Anger, Sadness, and Fear. The
following statistically significant correlations were found between:
These results suggest that those who responded to the survey found much to think about, and those who were empathic to sadness were certainly highly affected by the work. The responses made by the audience to the open-ended question concerning emotional response to the performance add to this picture. Five thematic areas emerge from the responses, including positive emotional experiences, specifically emotional religious/spiritual experiences, mixed emotional experiences, performance quality and achievement, anger, and dissatisfaction. Indicative examples for each theme are presented in the tables below.
Thankful |
Spiritually uplifting, deeply moving, inspiring |
Enjoyment |
Felt enlightened and moved |
Enjoyment, pleasure in the music and the performance |
An aesthetic/emotional reaction to the music, singing and playing, and the darkened cathedral atmosphere, all combined. My feelings were of pleasure |
Moved by the beauty and stimulated by the interpretation |
Christ's death affects me when his mother is also involved so the performance made me quite sad and prompted a stream of thoughts around the issue of Christ's sacrifice and its impact on his mother. Images of the deposition of Christ or the Pietà always make me very emotional. |
Moved and uplifted as a gift from God, having just lost my beautiful, talented, compassionate 44-year old daughter in a sudden collapse on plane. What is the meaning of everything — I was angry with God — and then I saw this play and felt I understood my tragedy better. |
I was moved by the beautiful music, John the Baptist's words had new meaning for me, having heard them often as a child and young adult, then having not attended a church service for forty years or more. |
Powerful, moving, uncomfortable yet exhilarated by potential |
Surprised and moved by the physicality. Awed by the atmosphere and location. Joy at hearing one of my very favourite pieces. |
Happy to see it. Interested to see and enjoyed the creative staging. Pleasure for the quality of performance. Angry at the suffering. |
I was very tired, but was still stirred by the passion and pain on display. |
As a lapsed Catholic I felt a range of complex emotions, including guilt for being lapsed, and straightforward human compassion for a man being violently assaulted. I'm also a historian, and my main reason for attending was curiosity about experiencing an important dimension of Christian experience. I didn't feel a spiritual sense of being uplifted by the resurrection — at that point I felt more academically interested in the historical spectacle of a Passion play, and amazement at the skill of the aerial artist. |
I felt quite emotional through much of the performance. The depiction of Christ's suffering made me feel both angry and sad. The depiction of Mary's grief was very moving, and the meeting of the risen Christ with his mother was wonderful and uplifting (especially as a mother, to see the son's respect for his mother). |
It made me think about the way we treat refugees and people outside the mainstream of our society and made me feel what it might have been like to actually witness the passion of Christ and the suffering of his family and supporters. It was a visceral experience due to the excellent staging of the crucifixion scene. |
I was moved. I was also impressed that a large group of young people had
produced an artistic piece of work in which they were so intimately
involved. It included different artistic expression, including chorus,
orchestra, solo speaking, dance acrobatics. I have myself recently produced
and written a Miracle play in St Paul's Cathedral called
|
The strong overall performance aroused a great sense of connection with ALL of the characters and the incredible beauty of the music and the intensity of its performance drew me closer to participation in the story. |
Standing ovation, very impressed. |
Amazed by the talented performers. |
Open-minded and appreciative of the interpretation using several art forms — music, dance, drama, lighting, costumes and props and circus arts. |
Due to seating and ticketing issues I could not settle… |
Annoyed. |
Dissatisfaction, not with the performers or the performance. |
I loved the musical and spoken performances in the beautiful Cathedral. However I was disturbed by the non-biblical exaggeration of the place of Mary in the drama. I do not worship Mary and it was plainly heresy to have Jesus kneeling in worship of Mary after the resurrection…The aerial acrobatics distracted from the truth of the salvation in Jesus for all who put their faith in Him. So this too was disappointing, although it was an extraordinary performance in itself. |
The emergent themes reveal contrasting experiences, some very positive based on deep emotional affect. For a minority there was some discontent, entirely based on having to queue to be seated and then having restricted visibility – the consequence of the show being a sell out, with many people trying to gain access on the night. But for the majority of respondents, this was an emotional experience that offered an opportunity to reflect on the power of enactment in delivering narrative meaning.
With this specific production, social justice messages had been central to the conceptualisation and development of the work and this had affected the audience. However, the survey revealed that the transference of experience from the Easter narrative to a broader social justice reflection was not as strong as I had anticipated. The immersive audience experience with the committed theatrical investment by the performers certainly provoked much emotional response and provided the audience with an experience quite different to being a passive recipient of a static performance. However, so dominant is the twenty-first century narrative of baroque music as being “beautiful” that for some audience members they failed to experience the specific “painful” emotions the music had been composed to communicate. I found this intriguing for there was a very strong theatrical enactment and yet somehow these audience members stayed emotionally close to their modern perception of baroque music.
In the twenty-first century, spoken/acted theatre has consistently confronted its
audiences with questions of political apathy and complicity in relation to wars,
poverty, migration, identity politics and loss – e.g., Theatre of Cruelty or the Theatre
of Excess (see Luckhurst & Tait, in press). In
The small survey response rate may, of course, reflects a skewed sample of participants.
I have spoken to many people who saw the performance, and I have received such powerful
and positive reactions to my production. Many people sent me emails, even stopped me on
public transport, telling me how profoundly they had been affected by the production.
Also, they reported how they had surprised themselves at the depth of emotional response
they had experienced to the enacted cries of Jesus, or how they felt this mixed emotion
of glory and horror as the choir stood beside and around them singing “Behold the Lamb
of God.” Perhaps because those people relayed these feelings to me in person — where I
could see the visceral impact of the event on them — I have gained a broader access to
the audience perception. My hope is that
I now ask you to watch Kade Greenland’s recording of the performance and consider whether or not you can recognise the emotional aspects of the baroque works in the expressions of maternal love, cultural and religious hatred, anger, violence, despair and hope. In fact, whether ‘passion, lament and glory’ works as a concept?
I gratefully acknowledge the openness, commitment and talents of all the performers and production team members who worked with me to bring this project to fruition. I thank Ormond Chair of Music, Professor Gary McPherson Director of the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, also the Melbourne Node of the Australian Research Council’s Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions, and The Reverend Dr Andreas Loewe, Dean of Melbourne for their enduring support throughout this project. I also thank Dr Amanda Krause for helping to process the quantitative data referred to in this paper. Gratitude goes also to Erika von Kaschke and Sarah Walker for their photographs and Kade Greenland for the film of the performance. Final appreciation goes to Frederic Kiernan for his support with many aspects of the project and this paper, from programme notes to proofreading.
All cast, musicians and production teams are listed in the Appendix
This survey approved by the ethics committee of the University of Western Australia with whom I was collaborating on modern audience experiences of Passion plays.