It was Good Friday, a dark clear night and the perfect time to see Bach's magnificent work of art. On stage was equally as exciting with a full 80 person choir plus an additional row of boy sopranos. Combine this 100 voice back-up with the amazing New York Philharmonic and the audience was in for a magical treat!

I won't go into details about the plot (read the Bible! It's quite a nice piece of literature!) but I will tell you the entire performance is in German. They hand out a nice fat booklet that gives the translation so I definitely advise reading through it (I even learned some German, ja!). Don't worry about lighting or missing action to read though. Being an oratorio (basically a sacred opera - no dialogue and all the songs have a religious theme!), the singers either stood or sat in a semicircle next to the conductor with their heads buried in their scores (unlike opera performances - they are permitted to read their music). Also, being in the lovely Avery Fisher Hall, all the lights were on, making it easy to read the program.

First up was the chorus who did a lovely job. They blended very well: sopranos, altos, tenors, and baritones all worked together nicely (shocking I know!). The boy's choir was especially gorgeous, their sound floated over the heavier chorus sound with their light pure voices. While it is hard to convey emotions through an entire group of very different people, I thought the choir did a great job adding color to their words. Combine that with Bach's fantastic arrangements and the booming "thunder, thunder, thunder"(in German of course!), and it really did sound like a tumultuous activity from the heavens.

The Baritone Matthias Goerne who played Jesus had a lovely dark timbre which I really enjoyed. He did an especially good job in characterization during the Garden of Gethsemane scene. His acting was well done, and you could hear the anguish and raw emotion in his voice. James Taylor, the tenor who performed the role of the Evangelist, was my absolute favorite singer of the evening. He had a lovely clear voice and his acting skills were impeccable. He enunciated extremely well (not that I can understand German --boohoo--) and had a lively energy in his voice that contrasted really well with the darkness of Jesus' voice.

I also really enjoyed the duet between soprano Christiane Lbior and alto Anna Larsson. Both blended very well and had a gorgeous smoothness to their runs. I thought they harmonized very well when singing together; however, when their lines broke up as they began singing in canon (one after another), the soprano overpowered the alto. I enjoyed the alto's performance in the gorgeous solo "Erbarme Dich." It is one of my personal favorite pieces in the oratorio and I thought she performed it well. Anna has a rich, dark timbre full of resonance (I could hear especially her low notes very clearly from the balcony) characterizing her more as a contralto than an alto (that means she sings lower that an alto--they have crazy awesome low notes!).

Overall I thought the oratorio was really quite enjoyable and moving, especially worth attending just to listen to Bach's beautiful music during the religious season. The performance lasted about three-and-a-half hours so I would definitely recommend this oratorio to opera aficionados or choral veterans. While the music is beautiful, those looking to venture into the opera world should definitely stick with the lighter operas, shorter and full of scenery and fun costumes. Just a warning note though, the music of Bach is so stunning that it has a sort of soporific effect (meaning half the audience was out cold mid Act 1!) so I would definitely recommend downing a coffee and a scone (I highly recommend cinnamon-chip from Starbucks!) before entering the theater because once you're in you won't want to miss a note of this beautiful oratorio.