In the performance Hell, soprano Bernadette Astari and Gerard Bouwhuis on piano experiment with the traditional form of a song recital that refers to old Javanese music styles. Starting from the well-known position of a soprano next to the grand piano, we literally and figuratively distance ourselves from this familiar stage image. The result is an exciting interplay, a battle between the two performers, life and death, heaven and hell.

Composer Boudewijn Tarenskeen found in his archives a very damaged score with songs in Renaissance style, and with texts from the ‘Divina’. With difficulty he deciphered the remains and assembled them into a feasible whole, integrating the missing passages, cracks and stains into the new score. Partly inspired by the incomparable Javanese soprano Bernadeta Astari, he incorporated old Javanese music styles into this new score.