New Utrecht cathedral consecrated with local residents singing

Cathedrals are 'in'

Utrecht has a thing for cathedrals. The Dom was once a cathedral, but since the Reformation stormed its way through the Roman Catholic heritage, the real cathedral with the archbishop's chair is now a few hundred metres away. In the early 1990s, theatre-maker Aram Adriaanse renamed the former stables of the veterinary faculty 'Horse Cathedral', after which a host of very burgundy and Romanesque theatre years followed.

For a year or two, industrial heritage has been targeted by the Roman mission. In the no man's land between Leidsche Rijn and Utrecht, a former church, which was once also a stair factory, has now been transformed into a 'Metal Cathedral'. The very latest addition is the Werkspoor Cathedral, the new name of Werkspoor's old factory, between the tracks to Amsterdam and The Hague.

In retrospect, it is a fluke that the new TivoliVredenburg music centre was not renamed Music or worse - Herzberger Cathedral. It could have been done just like that. In this city.

The fact remains that the building is imposing and indeed does look a bit like a church. There are side halls that look like side aisles, there are metal columns, and light shines through the ceiling. So last weekend, choirs sounded there. Six in all. From an endearing smartlap neighbourhood choir to a couple of gentlemen from the Netherlands Chamber Choir, who in turn sang to other choirs like the UCK Popkoor and the Stem des Volks (are they still alive?!).

Sung nostalgia

The subject was the Werkspoor factory and its workers. Werkspoor, together with steel factory Demka, was the great economic engine of the Zuilen district during the last century. When Dutch labour became too expensive and international competition too fierce, both factories closed in the late 1970s, after a whole series of notorious wildcat strikes paralysed life in Utrecht. Zuilen was left with empty factories and a population that had largely been manoeuvred into the WAO by a deal between government and unions. What remains is the melancholy of an ageing population that actually longs for the heat, the poor working conditions and the danger of working in the steel industry: at least you were somebody.

Poet Ruben van Gogh and composer Bob Zimmerman, who previously pulled off grand opera projects in the Westland, took the initiative for this Werkspoor Choral Opera, and it has become mostly nostalgic. The lyrics written by Van Gogh are a nice combination of common colloquial and official Dutch, and a few racy poetic phrases. Unfortunately, it got a bit stuck in the visual execution. In the huge hall, the choirs were now lined up around the audience, singing their numbers, interspersed by the 'narrators' of the Netherlands Chamber Choir. Of course, that hall is there to impress, but strangely enough, it was just a little underexploited.

The interesting combination with neighbourhood amateurs and (semi-)pros gently introduces the neighbourhood audience to what else exists above Jantje Smit. And in this day and age, that is already quite an achievement. A new mission, in short, in a new grand house of worship commemorating an earlier, metallic god.