Monique Krüs

Composer, soprano

Biography

Dramatic coloratura soprano Monique Krüs was born in Utrecht, 1959, and studied at the Utrecht Conservatory and the Mozarteum in Salzburg. For three years she was engaged at the opera house in Essen (Germany).

Since then she sings as a guest in European Opera houses and concert halls. Her flexible voice is not only qualified for the traditional repertoire like Violetta in La traviata and Konstanze in Die Entführung, but also for contemporary music like the world première in Giuseppe and Sylvia by Hölsky in Stuttgart and Guus Janssen's Hier at the Dutch National Opera.

She works with al the major Dutch orchestras with conductors like Peter Eötvös, Reinbert de Leeuw, Michael Schønwandt, Jaap van Zweden and others. She is a regular guest at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. Recently she jumped in for the challenging lead role of Empress Ci-Xi in the opera Hotel de Pékin by Willem Jeths with only five days to learn the part. This was broadcasted in the series the ZaterdagMatinee. In this series she also sang in the Requiem by Ligeti, in Arabella by Strauss, in the Cantata alla Fiaba estrema by Henze en Ton de Leeuw's Three Shakespeare Songs.

Monique Krüs is a composer as well. She writes and produces music and songs for TV programmes, series and documentaries. In 2007 she performed the soprano lead role in her first opera God's Videotheque commissioned by Dutch opera company Opera Spanga. Her Eine Odyssee, music theatre for and by youths at the Impuls Festival für neue Musik in Magdeburg (Germany) in 2009 was very successful and will be published by Verlag der Autoren Frankfurt.

Her short opera buffa for the Nederlands Concertkoor, Lippijn on a medieval Dutch text will be performed at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw in January 2013.

The renowned Peter de Grote Festival in Groningen invited her to write a chamber opera about Peter the Great, which had a succesfull premiere in the summer of 2013.

Planned productions:

- Musical theatre about Anne Frank for Nederlands Philharmonisch Orkest in 2015

- An opera for the Nationale reisopera in 2016

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Composer website: www.moniquekrus.nl

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Opera Chronology:

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2004 August

Rote Kaiserin
monodrama (12 min)
Palmhaus Festival Dresden

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2007 Augustus

God's Videotheque
opera (65 min)
Opera Spanga

Video trailer God's Videotheque: 

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2009 September/October

Eine Odyssee
music theatre (90 min)
Magdeburg / Impuls Festival für neue Musik in Sachsen-Anhalt '09 / '10

Video fragment Eine Odyssee: 'Es ist vorbei' (Monique Krüs (soprano)):

2011 September

Soeraki
music theatre for kids
Gergiev Festival Rotterdam/ Rotterdam Philharmonisch Orkest

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2012

Lippijn, een sotternie
short opera for mixed choir, piano and percussion
Nederlands Concertkoor

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Summer 2013

New commission for an opera on Peter de Grote for Peter de Grote Festival Groningen, Summer 2013