il Gardellino

‘Coffee, Coffee muss ich haben!’It could be the cry of a Berlin hipster, but here it comes from her prototype. Liesgen, the enfant terrible of Bach’s famous Coffee Cantata, BWV211, is prepared to give up her entire social life for a cup of coffee, despite all the counter-arguments of her conservative father. This delightful mini-drama premiered in Zimmermann’s illustrious coffee house in Leipzig, where rivers of the black gold were consumed. In that same setting, on 5 September, 1733, another Bach cantata resounded: Lasst uns sorgen, lasst uns wachen, a tribute to the eleven-year-old electoral prince of Saxony Friedrich Christian. The libretto portrays the young prince as the hero Hercules standing at the crossroads of virtue and vice. Naturally, he chooses the right path. With an overture from Telemann’s colourful collection, il Gardellino roll out the red carpet for this unusually frivolous programme.

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