True Love Song Cycle
On the erosion of autonomyIn 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