‘Dear Mr Schoof, Thank you very much for your fascinating proposal to organize a competition among Dutch composers and directors based on a libretto by you. Very nice that you have already given so many instructions. My comment is no more than a modest addition. Based on the 499 pages now before me, I conclude that you are aiming for an operetta-like and filmable ‘total theater’ with which Dutch people can identify. The title A hero struggles and emerges is promising.
Your sources of inspiration are diverse, from John le Carré (your intelligence background?), Reinaert de Vos, Churchill’s biography and of course The letter to the king by Tonke Dragt. I would suggest also including an immigrant title in the same vein, for example Orhan Pamuks Snowabout a city full of conspiracy theories.
You do not want to have new work composed, but rather encourage composers to vary existing music. I understand that wish from the perspective of cost savings, but would like to warn against taking it too lightly copy & paste. For example, the use of Verdi’s famous Slave choir (Va, pensiero) for your Choir of Wandering Farmers doesn’t seem quite appropriate to me. If you want to hold on to this, indeed beautiful, music, then it suits you better Choir of Failed Asylum Seekers in the second act.
You situate the work in an as yet unknown future in which our country and Europe are threatened by hostile forces and climate change. Institutions crumble, desperate citizens and uprooted migrants clash. Leading roles are played by courageous individuals such as Tjark, the young intelligence officer who roams the world breaking Russian codes, Suzanne, the prime minister’s daughter with whom he is secretly in love and Aziz, the leader of the Black Rebels (who has captured Suzanne’s heart with his beautiful long eyelashes). stolen). As the country prepares for war, Aziz blackmails Tjark. If he doesn’t give up Suzanne, her father will die.
I would recommend restraint on direct references to acts of war. General Middenstad in his vegetable garden refers sufficiently to the self-reliance of the people without hiding Kalashnikovs among the kale. Are you sure you want to use photos of Churchill’s War Rooms as decor? The name Kerkheuvel for the Prime Minister is also a bit transparent, I think.
The image of the endless rain and the rising water around the Binnenhof is very beautiful. In each scene the singers have to trudge through deeper water until the dike breach swallows the Tower.
Kerkheuvel’s last monologue in front of the ruins of the tower is moving. He mourns for his daughter and his cabinet, even though his life is spared. In a dramatic confrontation, Tjark stops Aziz from killing the prime minister, but the bullet hits him in the chest. He dies in Suzanne’s arms. Aziz is immediately shot by the secret service. Kerkheuvel, together with his colleagues, declares a European state of emergency.
In the final scene, singers on colliding fat bikes (with or without helmets?), symbolizing the constructive energy of the Netherlands, cheer him on. Accompanied by a medley of heavy metal and pop music from the eighties. Do I understand that you have a preference for the romantic scenes for The Amazing Stroopwafels?
Finally, thank you for your personal expression of sympathy. I am not surprised that your intelligence services were aware of my dismissal by the editor-in-chief of this newspaper even before I was. After more than twenty years of columns, it feels like the end of an era, but I will get over it, partly thanks to this interesting assignment on your part.
Louise O. Fresco wrote her last column for NRC. For two decades, Fresco wrote weekly in this place with great erudition about a multitude of topics. The editor-in-chief is extremely grateful to her for her important contribution to the social debate. She will continue to share her extensive knowledge with the reader in the form of essays.