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Ich habe genug (BWV 82)
Ich habe genug, BWV 82 (“I have enough”), is a church cantata written for the Feast of the Purification of Mary and consists of five movements:
Aria: Ich habe genug
Recitative: Ich habe genug
Aria: Schlummert ein, ihr matten Augen
Recitative: Mein Gott! wenn kömmt das schöne: Nun!
Aria: Ich freue mich auf meinen TodThe aria Schlummert ein, ihr matten Augen (“Fall asleep, you weary eyes”) is a Schlummer-Arie, or sleep aria. Its complex structure is not merely a three-part da capo aria framed by a string ritornello: it also repeats the opening section in the middle of the central section. Pedal notes repeatedly suggest rest, while fermatas arrest the forward motion. Mincham described it as follows: “the frequent pauses, where everything temporarily comes to a standstill, are indicative of the peaceful conclusion of life, in which there is no activity and disorder is a thing of the past.”
A brief secco recitative, Mein Gott! wenn kömmt das schöne: Nun! (“My God! When will the beautiful ‘now’ come?”), ends with a descending continuo line suggesting “farewell and descent into the welcoming grave.”
The final aria, Ich freue mich auf meinen Tod (“I look forward to my death” or “I shall rejoice in my death”), is a joyful dance that anticipates death as the fulfilment of desire. The “joyful longing for the hereafter” is expressed through “agile coloratura that characterises the entire movement.” As Mincham observes, the recited text of the aria first addresses the “joy of anticipating death and the desire that it should come imminently,” while the central section expresses the “conviction that death will free us from the misery of the world to which we have been chained.”
Many of Bach’s works imagine death as a blissful release from the sorrows of the world. We’ve seen this attitude already in the Orgelbüchlein, with “Mit Fried’ und Freud,” where the chorale text says that “death to me is become a sleep.” In Cantata N0. 82, the final aria proclaims, “Ich freue mich auf meinen Tod” (I delight in my death). This cantata was unforgettably performed and recorded by Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, who herself died young, at only 52. Lieberson also performed “Ich habe genug” in a staged version, which updated the vocabulary of dying for the present day. As Alex Ross described it: “Hunt Lieberson sang the Bach cantatas in a monodrama staged by the iconoclastic director Peter Sellars, with whom she has collaborated on many projects over the years. For “Ich habe genug,” she wore the hospital garb—complete with medical tubes—of a woman who is terminally ill.”