text: The St Matthew Passion has been presented in staged performances. Typically, these are done with all performers in street clothes or neutral costumes, the orchestras on stage, at least the soloists singing without scores from memory, and the words acted out in a solemn, melodramatic fashion with only a minimal stage set. On the other hand, George Balanchine staged it in 1943 with Stokowski conducting. Other notable staged performances include Jonathan Miller's 1997 production in English.
  The Hamburg Ballet presented a Saint Matthew Passion, created and choreographed by John Neumeier, at the Hamburg State Opera in 1981. The Hamburg Ballet production has been reproduced several times, including at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York in 1983 and the Los Angeles Opera in 2022. The Los Angeles Opera presentation involved "42 dancers, six singers, two choruses, and two mighty-in-sound chamber orchestras."
  21st century
  Staged productions of the Passion include Lindy Hume's 2005 production for the Perth International Arts Festival, restaged in 2013 for Opera Queensland with , Sara Macliver, Tobias Cole; and Peter Sellars' 2010 production with the Berlin Philharmonic under Simon Rattle with Mark Padmore, Camilla Tilling, Magdalena Kožená, Topi Lehtipuu, Christian Gerhaher and Thomas Quasthoff.
  Transcriptions
  The final chorus Wir setzen uns mit Tränen nieder was transcribed for solo organ by Charles-Marie Widor in 1925, as part of the set of 6 pieces named Bach's Memento.