God's Liar

Father Sergius, Tolstoy’s short story on which God’s Liar is based, follows Sergius’ long journey through life. We first see him as a young man fully in command with a bright future. Betrayed by his fiancée, his vanity leads him to seek an escape from his present world, a decision that finally results in poverty and vagrancy.
This haunting and disturbing tale speaks forcefully to us in any age. However, the synopsis has been developed to include our own time, casting the even-numbered scenes in the present, whilst following the basic line of Tolstoy’s original story. After the opening scene set in the 19th century, we then find Stephen, a young academic of today whose research is based on the discovery and transcription of the diaries of a 19th century Russian hermit, and who is persuaded to sell the fruits of his research to the film industry.
Stephen, shocked by what Hollywood has done with his work, becomes obsessed with finding out the truth behind Sergius’ actions. As the opera progresses, the two centuries begin to merge and, in the final scene, the story thrusts Sergius/Stepan, now an old beggar, onto a modern street where he is taunted by a crowd. Stephen recognises him, rescues him and is joined by a woman from the crowd, a figure who seems to be the woman from his own past and also to represent all those in Stepan’s life. The search for truth which has occupied both Stepan and Stephen has provided no answers, only darkness and silence: perhaps this is the final lie. The thread that runs throughout the opera returns with the woman’s final lines: “one good deed... worth more than all the lies...”