A nomadic artist family at a rooftop terrace among television antennas, chimneys and ventilation shafts. An acrobat, a transvestite and a cripple, wailing women, a girl harassed by her father and a pair of lovers. Euphoria, blood, tenderness and lust. Freedom poetry, merriments meaninglessness, everydays heaven and hell.

Alain Platel, native of Ghent and born in 1956, is an exception on the modern European stage. He always felt himself magically attracted to Johann Sebastian Bach’s music. But only after touching base with Georg Friedrich Händel in »Bonjour Madame …« (1993) and Henry Purcell in »La tristeza cómplice« (»The shared sorrow«, 1995) did he dare to approach this »musics most sacred shrine«.

Bach and mundane workaday, no contrast appears to be more distinctive. Frequently arithmetic construction, pathos and religious background are deemed so prominent in his compositions that one item seems nearly forgotten: the human being. Bach’s problems, may they be his vexation with superiors, irritating diversion through daily routine drudgery or suffocating everyday trivia are well known to all of us. Platel associates the topic of death, always subtly touched on in Bach’s cantata and passions, just as vitality, indignation, banality, passion, failure and resignation are implied on – also with political life.

The Belgian cellist Roel Dieltiens who guest-performed in numerous countries as a solo player as well as with his chamber orchestra, made a great contribution to this production which is, coming after »La tristeza cómplice« (1996) and »Bernadetje« (1971), the third by Alain Platel at euro-scene Leipzig. No conceivable subtitle fits »lets op Bach« – perhaps it is a »folksy opera of the pure heart« …