Opera Scotland

Coffee Cantata 1995Scottish Early Music Consort

Read more about the opera Coffee Cantata

This was a thoroughly enjoyable programme under the intriguing title 'Coffee and a Blaze of Trumpets'. The coffee element was, of course, J S Bach's delightful little entertainment, in form a secular cantata, but in practice an early example of opera buffa. The evening began with two works by Biber before the cantata. After the interval another Biber sonata was followed by Bach's wonderful cantata 'Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen'. The final item was a solo by Biber, his 'Nightwatchman' from a Serenade of 1673, admirably characterised by Alan Watt to the accompaniment of atmospheric pizzicato strings.

The Bach cantata certainly worked in this context, and was very well performed in an irreverent modern translation by Hugh Macdonald.