In Passion of the Common Man, to be performed on 31 July and 1 August 2026, Icelandic composer Daníel Bjarnason and Canadian librettist Royce Vavrek have created a secular oratorio that transposes the structure of J.S. Bach’s Passions into the near future. Composed for four soloists, choir and chamber orchestra, Passion of the Common Man is about the need for empathy in a futuristic world.
The piece is directed by Netia Jones, deputy head of Opera at the Royal Opera House in London, who transforms the Werkstattbühne theatre into an immersive space in which music, light and video merge into a multi-layered gesamtkunstwerk. The legendary mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter takes on a central role that combines singing and speech and offers a reinterpretation of the traditional image of the Evangelist.
