Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht

"Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht" ("Be still, stop chattering") (aka "The Coffee Cantata") (BWV 211) is a secular cantata written by Johann Sebastian Bach between 1732 and 1734. Although classified as a cantata, it is essentially a miniature comic opera.

In a satirical commentary, the cantata amusingly tells of an addiction to coffee, a pressing social problem in eighteenth century Leipzig, where this work was premiered.

The cantata's libretto (written by Christian Friedrich Henrici) features lines such as "If I can't drink my bowl of coffee three times daily, then in my torment, I will shrivel up like a piece of roast goat"—a sentiment that would likely have been appreciated by the patrons of Zimmerman's Coffee House in Leipzig, where Bach's Collegium (the Collegium Musicum, founded by Georg Philipp Telemann in 1702) would have originally performed the work.

The cantata was written for concert performance originally (Bach wrote no operas) [ [http://www.bach.org/bach101/cantatas/cantata211.html Bach Choir of Bethlehem ] ] , but is frequently performed today fully staged with costumes and blocking.

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External links

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* [http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Coffee_Cantata Complete Libretto Text on Wikisource]