The Dutch composer Rob Zuidam has always had an eye for headstrong women. In his first collaboration with festival director Pierre Audi he puts two of them on stage. Suster Bertken tells about the fascinating life of the medieval ascetic Berta Jacobs, who bricked herself in at the Buur Church in Utrecht, in order to devote her life to God. This work from 2010 will be staged for the first time, in combination with the brand new Troparion, which Zuidam wrote for alto Helena Rasker, the young violinist Liza Ferschtman and a small instrumental ensemble. The piece is about a woman who sheds her tears on a dead branch, hoping God will breathe new life into it. According to Zuidam the work is about ‘hope and melancholy and the inability to bridge the gap between past and future.’

Artists

Robert Zuidam
Troparion
Suster Bertken

Asko|Schönberg
conductor
Reinbert de Leeuw
direction
Pierre Audi
alto
Helena Rasker
baritone
Hubert Claessens
soprano
Katrien Baerts
violin
Liza Ferschtman
set design 
Christof Hetzer