By GEORGE LOOMIS [NY Sun, 10 April 2006]

We will never know what it would be like to experience an opera by J.S. Bach because he didn't write any. But his consummate ability as a musical dramatist is abundantly evident in his two passion settings - the comparatively terse "St. John Passion" and the more contemplative "St. Matthew Passion" - which relate the events leading up to and including with Jesus's crucifixion.