In 2018, composer and lyricist Peter Sijbenga was commissioned by the Noord Nederlands Orkest (NNO) to create a Frisian version of the Matth\u00e4us Passion, the famous oratorio by Johannes Sebastian Bach. Now that there are no ‘regular’ Matth\u00e4us Passion performances for the second time in a row this year, we look back to 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bach composed the Matth\u00e4us Passion around 1736. The oratorio tells the story of the suffering and death of Jesus, as recorded by his friend and follower Matthew. Peter Sijbenga said in 2018: \u201cI will translate and not edit or update. This does not mean that I will use Old Frisian, but that I want to stay as close to the Urtext as possible for the word picture and the content.\u201d The German text is easily translated into Frisian. The linearity in sounds in Frisian is closer to German than to Dutch. Sijbenga: \u201cIt is also nice that there are grammatical-idiomatic similarities between Frisian and German. This is how the same word order is used in both languages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Frisian Matth\u00e4us Passion was performed in 2018 by the Noord Nederlands Orkest and the Noord-Nederlands Concertkoor, supplemented by Frisian singers. Marcel Mandos, artistic leader and programmer of the orchestra in 2018, said at the time: “LF2018 is a great opportunity to once again make the NNO have a Frisian ancestor, namely the Frysk Orkest”. The Frisian Matth\u00e4us Passion was part of L\u00e2n fan Taal, and thus of the main program of LF2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Omrop Frysl\u00e2n made a Frysl\u00e2nDOK in 2018 about the Frisian Matth\u00e4us Passion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n