True Love Song Cycle

In True Love, composer Renske Vrolijk sets the raw rhetoric of sexual power to music of deceptive lightness. By combining historical sources—from the 17th-century diaries of Samuel Pepys to speeches by the modern populist archetype—the cycle exposes the chilling allure of dominance.

The 40-minute cycle follows the story of Mary and the erosion of her autonomy within American Christian nationalism. It traces a trajectory from the “grooming” phase—where religious purity is deployed as a weapon—to legislative control over the female body. The finale marks the moment when the full weight of civil legal proceedings brought against her comes crashing down. It is a piece written with a chilling, painted-on smile.

The programme opens with the romantic Sechs Lieder (Op. 17) by Elisabeth Kuyper (1877–1953).

Bauwien van der Meer, soprano
Caecilia Boschman, piano