Gods Videotheque

A tragicomic chamber opera 

LUN 1002                        Gods Videotheque  

Libretto                            Irma Achten                                  

Commission                  Opera Spanga (NL)

Premiere                         July 25th, 2007 Spanga

Instrumentation        4 soloists SATB, chamber orchestra and soundeffects

Opera Spanga invited Krüs to write her first grand opera in 2007 on a original libretto by Irma Achten. She had been working with this opera company often before as a singer, after producer/director Corina van Eijk and Krüs founded the company in 1989. Four singers and sixteen musicians performed 65 minutes at Spanga's beautiful rural location in the North of Holland.

This tragicomical opera focuses on the relationship between god, man and animals. Does man enjoy his position as center of the universe? And is it justified?

        Joseph Kiss, manager of Gods Videotheque, pays God a visit and brings organic wine and perfume. On a large screen they watch the three main characters on their way to a convention about xenotranplantation. Leo Fulca, a scientist and his wife, philisopher Hanna. He is interested in all developments in that area - she is totally against it. Sofie Vandam seems shy at first, but turns out to be a fanatic. This catholic pharmacist cannot stand the idea that animals in this line of thinking are equal to man.

        All three of them are killed at the end of the ouverture. They awake in a void between life and death in God's Videotheque, where piles of videotapes with content of everybody’s lives are stored. The three newly deads are welcomed by Joseph Kiss, who confronts them with scenes they'd rather forget about.