"The Judas Passion"

NEW TESTAMENT APOCRYPHA WATCH MEETS ORCHESTRA: Philharmonia Baroque give Judas top billing in new season (Georgia Rowe, The Mercury News).

The Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra is often associated with the music of its namesake era, but the award-winning ensemble under Nicholas McGegan will open its 2017-18 season with a brand-new work.

“The Judas Passion,” by Scottish composer Sally Beamish and librettist David Harsent, is a contemporary passion that revisits the life of Judas Iscariot, exploring the age-old story through themes of forgiveness and redemption. Loosely based on Gnostic texts, it was commissioned by Philharmonia Baroque and Britain’s Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. The ink on the score will scarcely be dry when Bay Area audiences hear the work, which is scheduled to make its world premiere under McGegan’s direction at the Edinburgh Festival in August. ...

Something to look forward to at the Festival. It will also be playing in the USA. The "Gnostic texts" presumably consist of the Coptic Gospel of Judas and perhaps other things.