Gods Videotheque

Monique Krüs/Irma Achten

Copernicus' discovery that the earth was not the center of the universe shook the very foundations of the Christian world of that era. But what is it that got shaken loose? The position of humankind stood its ground. Humans continued to consider themselves to be at the center. In this opera questions are raised: Is our position a pleasant one? Is it a legitimate one? Is our power proportional and is the proportion bearable for our environment?

Short synopsis

The three main characters, attending a xenotransplantation conference, lose their lives in a violent manner right at the beginning of the opera. They experience their death as an eternal vacuum, a vacuum which is filled by Josef Kiss, who appears to them in images at the beginning. He is in a video store where on an enormous number of tapes their lives are recorded image by image. Mercilessly he shows them fragments of their existence. The three main characters (Sofie, a Christian formalist, Leo, a heart specialist and Hanna, a student of ethics) are confronted with their lives after they have died.. They are certainly less than charmed by what they see on film. The confrontation with their lives, where in this case the animals (i.e. the pigs) have to pay the price, leads to hot-tempered tension among them. Opera Spanga aims at bringing the medium of opera to life, not just by creating fresh works, but also by employing the power of the medium in dealing with themes which are felt to be necessary. Opera Spanga considers the creation of new repertory to be an important job.

Press

´Spanga has its own and unique status thanks to the always interesting and special style of directing of Corina van Eijk, here exploited again successfully. Monique Krüs, who performs one of the leadroles herself, wrote the appealing music´

NRC Handelsblad

´A very entertaining performance´

Trouw

´Monique Krüs wrote a very attractive, sympathetic composition´

De Volkskrant

´The libretto of Irma Achten addresses quite a few human and animal ethics and Krüs has found very appealing music with it´

Dagblad van het Noorden

´In a contemporary yet understandable musical language the story is told up-tempo´

Friesch Dagblad

< Opera Spanga chronology