All [family celebrations] have their secrets
The world premiere of the new opera by Kaija Saariaho, Sofi Oksanen and Aleksi Barrière at Festival d’Aix-en-Province on 3 July 2021 was a major success. The premiere at the Finnish National Opera will take place on 21 October 2022.
Innocence is a ravishing opera that takes place in two parallel periods of time. It deals with the wounds of the past, the passing of time, and the act of letting go. A wedding party is underway in Helsinki, but the groom’s family has a dark secret. When the events from a decade ago begin to unravel, the guests face a moment of truth.
Suggested age guidance +12. The opera includes scenes about a school shooting.
Innocence is a co-production of the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, the Finnish National Opera, the Royal Opera House in London, the Dutch National Opera, and the San Francisco Opera. In partnership with the Metropolitan Opera.
Production photos: Jean Louis Fernandez, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, artists’ photos: Toni Härkönen.
An international group of guests are celebrating a wedding in Helsinki. The fiancé is Finnish, the bride Romanian, and the mother-in-law French. But suddenly, during the wedding banquet, the Czech waitress feels ill…
The groom has a dark secret and the wedding banquet is haunted by tragic events that took place years earlier. Ghosts revive their memories of the trauma, there is a guilty haze, a lost innocence.
The full synopsis can be found in the programme leaflet.
