Bach & Telemann: Money, power and pleasure | Netherlands Bach Society

In a theatrical programme about money, power and pleasure, the Netherlands Bach Society brings to life the fashionable Leipzig of the early 18th century. The performance begins with Bach’s ‘Erwählte Pleißen-Stadt’; we extend this song of praise to the city of Leipzig to our present time. Imagine a company, CEOs talking about the success of their companies, standing behind catheters like you have at a press conference. But then, in Bach’s expressive cantata ‘Es erhub sich ein Streit’ BWV 19, whistleblowers wonder: what about that success? What goes on behind the scenes cannot pass muster. Power, money, sex, the same old story. In the complex story of Telemann’s opera ‘Der neumodische Liebhaber Damon, oder die Satyrn in Arcadien’, the satyr Damon tries to conquer a kingdom from which he has been exiled. Like a true contemporary seducer, he explores the boundaries of sexuality and bourgeois decency. The characters from Telemann’s opera already enter the stage during BWV 19, the f