26 February to 8 March 2026 in the Jacobijnerkerk in Leeuwarden
Information:
Opera Spanga presents Mijn Engel, Ik Geloof Je [My Angel, I Believe You] - a dazzling tragicomic whodunnit opera - by librettist Irma Achten and composer Tjalling Wijnstra, the creators of Madam Scrooge in collaboration with Schouwburg de Harmonie, Leeuwarden, and the Jacobijnerkerk, Leeuwarden.
Ideas, springing from stories of the dominant, monotheistic religions, placed humans at the top of the pyramid. Without any consultation with the life around them, they were allowed to rule the earth. We know the consequences.
In animistic societies, which we have brusquely erased from the map through colonialism, all living things have a soul, and everything is intimately connected. They intuitively understood the interconnectedness of things.
The protagonist in this opera lives according to the animistic principle.
Flora and fauna are her family. When she teaches her friends, the bears, how to handle weapons, it's hardly a provocation, but rather an action born from a sense of justice. Getting engaged to a bear isn't a provocation for her either. Of all the somebodies she knows, she simply loves him the most. Her thoughts, her actions, provoke resistance, feelings of hatred in her family and neighbors. She crosses a line. And if people hate something…
When her father is shot at a masked dinner, everyone blames the bear…
Showing on location in the beautiful Jacobijnerkerk in Leeuwarden from February 26th to March 8th.
Starring Merlijn Runia as Irene, Marcel van Dieren as her terminally ill father, Bertrand, Koen Masteling as her addicted brother, Charles, Wessel Wirken as the jealous neighbor boy, Victor, Klara Uleman as his unbearably sour mother, and Freni and Wivineke van Groningen as the quiet but remarkably sharp detective, Marie Valdair, directed by Corina van Eijk. Tjalling Wijnstra leads an ensemble of violin (Idil Yunkus), cello (Beste Yildiz), clarinet (Pierre Lafay), and accordion (Ellen Zijm).
More information at: Opera Spanga