MISERERE

The Economy of Salvation

In Miserere, Renske Vrolijk exposes the marketplace of human vanity. Scored for the monumental forces of a choir and symphony orchestra, the work critiques ‘Spiritual Tourism’—the eternal attempt to buy a comfortable seat on the road to salvation.

The Rolling Suitcase Pilgrim

The piece draws a direct line between the Medieval Indulgence and the modern ‘Rolkofferpelgrim’ (Rolling Suitcase Pilgrim). In the 15th century, the wealthy bought letters of indulgence to avoid Purgatory. Today, tourists on the Camino de Santiago pay services to transport their luggage. The tragedy of this ‘transactional soul’ remains the same: the delusion that atonement can be outsourced.

The Verdict

The libretto centres on the terrifying line from the medieval play Elckerlijc (Everyman): ‘Mi es bevolen dat ic moet reysen’ (‘I am commanded to journey’).
This is the voice of the convict, sentenced to a penal pilgrimage. It cuts through the noise of the marketplace with a simple truth: while you can buy a luxury hiking package, you cannot bribe the Judge to avoid the final journey.

Angels and Vendors

Vrolijk treats the ensemble as a landscape of delusion. The women of the choir sing in an ‘almost angelic’ fashion—a floating texture representing the veneer of sanctity the wealthy sinner tries to purchase.
The male voices cut through this beauty with the roughness of market vendors, hawking their wares: ‘Koopt de aflate’(Buy the indulgence!). Beneath them, the orchestra exposes the grind of the real journey with industrial, anvil-heavy blows.