Organization

Festival d'Aix en Provence

Singer

Baritone

Jukka Rasilainen

Priest

Mezzo-soprano

Magdalena Kožená

Waitress

Soprano

Lilian Farahani

Bride

Tenor

Markus Nykänen

Groom

Tuomas Pursio

Father-in-Law

Sandrine Piau

Mother-in-Law

Lucy Shelton

Teacher

Vilma Jää

Student 1

Beate Mordal

Student 2

Julie Hega

Student 3

Simon Kluth

Student 4

Actor

Camilo Delgado Díaz

Student 5

Marina Dumont

Student 6

Lighting designer

James Farncombe

Costume designer

Mel Page

Set designer

Chloe Lamford

Choreographer

Arco Renz

Stage director

Simon Stone

Conductor

Susanna Mälkki

Choir

Polina Liiv

Assistant to the Conductor

Clément Mao-Takacs

Vocal Coaches

Frédéric Calendreau

David Alan Miller

Assistants to the Stage Director

Sybille Wilson

Robin Ormond

Assistants to the Costumes Designer

Elisa Penel

Angèle Mignot

Assistant to the Set Designer

Blanca Aňón

Chorus master

Lodewijk van der Ree

Flange

Maëlle Desclaux

Extra

Sound designer

Timo Kurkikangas

Finnish National Opera

De Nationale Opera

Royal Opera House

Others

Chœur de Chambre Philharmonique Estonien

San Francisco Opera

Orchestra

London Symphony Orchestra

English

Finnish

Czech

Romanian

French

Swedish

German

Spanish

Greek

Innocence

Aix-en-Provence

France

Each edition of the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence sees the birth of a world creation. In 2021, we discover "Innocence", an opera by Kaija Sariaho.

The opera Innocence takes us to Finland . Firstly because the action is played out there, but also (and above all) because several compatriots of Jean Sibelius are involved in the project: the great composer Kaija Saariaho of course but also the writer Sofi Oksanen who wrote it the libretto and the conductor Susanna Mälkki who is the first to conduct it.

In this northern context, Innocencefeatures four characters from the four corners of Europe: a Finnish man and his Romanian partner, a French mother-in-law and a Czech waitress. Around them will unfold a real contemporary tragedy crossed by the theme of memory, guilt and the loss of innocence. Serious subjects that nevertheless generate an opera full of humanity.

It is the Australian Simon Stone who stages the creation of Innocenceat the Grand Theater de Provence. In a rotating decor, the singers Magdalena Kožená (the waitress), Sandrine Piau (the mother-in-law), Tuomas Pursio (the father-in-law), Lilian Farahani (the bride) and Markus Nykänen (the groom) evolve. . Their voices are joined by the London Symphony Orchestra and the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir conducted by Lodewijk van der Ree.

Grand Théâtre de Provence

In today's Finland, a wedding like so many in our cosmopolitan cities. The groom is Finnish, the bride is Romanian, the mother-in-law French. But then during the banquet, the Czech waitress feels bad. It is that, ten years earlier, a tragedy touched these characters. The ghosts then revive the memory of a collective drama, diffuse guilt, lost innocence. Kaija Saariaho's new opera is the occasion for an unprecedented encounter between the great composer and another Finnish artist, the novelist Sofi Oksanen, who has no equal in confronting our today with the shadows of the past. Innocence, their vast choral drama for soloists, choir and orchestra, is a contemporary tragedy made incandescent by powerful music and words that stir up the languages ​​of the world. With this world premiere conducted by Finnish conductor Susanna Mälkki and staged by Australian Simon Stone, the Festival d'Aix is ​​writing a new page in the history of opera.

Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho (*1952) draws the listener into her world of sound: from the brooding darkness of the opening bars, the audience is drawn into the unfolding nightmare. The libretto by Sofi Oksanen weaves together two stories about a school shooting. One focuses on the students and their teacher who were present at the time of the massacre. The second is set in the present, at a wedding where the shooter's family is celebrating the marriage of their innocent son. The intensity of the thriller changes the time levels and the mixture of nine languages. "The strongest work Saariaho has written in a career now in its fifth decade" (The New York Times).

Innocence Saariaho

Public

Approved

Videos