Bach at Leipzig

Act One
Cast of Characters
JOHANN FRIEDRICH FASCH, organist, and Kapellmeister at Zerbst, fifties.
GEORG BALTHASAR SCHOTT, organist at the Neuekirche in Leipzig, fifties.
GEORG LENCK, organist, and Kantor at Laucha, late thirties.
JOHANN MARTIN STEINDORFF, organist, and Kantor at Zwickau, twenties.
GEORG FRIEDRICH KAUFMANN, organist, and Kantor at Merseburg, fifties.
JOHANN CHRISTOPH GRAUPNER, organist, and Kapellmeister at Darmstadt, fifties.
THE GREATEST ORGANIST IN GERMANY, organist, and Kantor at Hamburg.


SETTING: The Thomaskirche, Leipzig, Germany, 1722. Later, 1750.


AUTHOR'S NOTE: In spite of the highly constructed plotting, the archness of the language, the period setting, and so on, all of which seem to lend themselves to a heightened and distancing style of performance, this play works best when inhabited as fully and realistically as possible. My experience has been that when the temptation to "perform" takes over, not only does the play lose emotional resonance but it actually becomes less funny. Play it "for real."
Copyright © 2005 by Itamar Moses