a great achievement, but it doesn’t work everywhere ★★★☆☆

“Not too bad, isn’t it, such a crucifixion?” Bart Schneemann, oboist and frontman of the Netherlands Wind Ensemble, is answered with jubilant applause. The Enschede audience in the Wilminktheater is delighted after the premiere of the wind version of Bach’s Matthew Passion. Composer and trombonist Arjan Linker (22) melted the passion into a seventy-minute piece for wind instruments, three stringed instruments and two singers.

With dancers and puppets included, it is a multidisciplinary spectacle. A local amateur choir participates in every performance. Singing straight from the heart, the Ecok Concertkoor in Enschede does not guarantee a flawless performance.

There are passages left out and scrambled. Jesus is taken off the cross alive at the beginning, in reverse order. Then a lamb sings like Jesus Nehmet, esset, das ist mein Leib† An efficient find; the Lamb of God offers itself in advance. The cotton candy-like ‘guts’ are greedily eaten by the dinner companions.

Jesus, the lamb and another woman – the one who later pitiful dich will sing – are dolls from the Duda Paiva Company. Made of foam rubber, they can be rolled into a ball. Once unfolded, they are sculptures with good-looking muscle definition.

Both the already expressive dancers and the singers make the puppets move – a great achievement. Do the moving dolls bring the passion story to life? Yes, but ‘Mein Gott’ as a foam woman’s exclamation is especially laughable. The effect – that of any identification – of the otherwise moving aria is gone: powerful but vulnerable is soprano Claron McFadden, the violin part played by Ghaeth Almaghoot on the cloth sounds plaintive.

In the basaria mache dicho does not sing the smooth baritone Rick Zwart, but plays the trombone (bravo, Brandt Attema). In turn, different artists briefly stand with their arms outstretched in front of the large white cross. They wash their hands afterwards, which turn blood red under a beam of light: we are all sinners.