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A Dutch-language oratorio from one of the pioneers of the Flemish music

scene! Peter Benoit was a rarity in the predominantly French-speaking cultural

landscape of Belgium, and a Dutch-language oratorio about the Scheldt

River was of huge symbolic value. Depicting the river as a lifeline reflected

the radical optimism of Benoit's cultural policy. He had chosen the subject

well: few other European rivers had so often been the subject of cross-border

conflicts, treaties, lawsuits, sieges, blockades, and battles as the Scheldt. For

the libretto, Benoit collaborated with writer Emanuel Hiel, who had previously

provided the libretto for Lucifer. Together they created a complex scenario,

moving away from the narrative oratorio tradition, in which the river is used

to depict a journey through national consciousness.