Innocence

The performance October 13, 2026 is only for young people between 15 and 30 years old at a special price.

Sofi Oksanen, a recipient of the Nordic Council's Literature Prize, has written the text that, in Aleksi Barrière's translation, perfectly supports the music of the recently deceased Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho's last opera. The staging is directed by Australian Simon Stone, so it's a true dream team that takes you by the hand and gives you a raw and nightmarish commentary on the senseless gun violence of our time. Right in the middle of the Opera House's protective maple tree heart.

A woman reveals that she sleeps best under the bed or in the closet. The two places where the monsters of her childhood lived. The joy is great at a wedding party, where guests celebrate the newlyweds. One of the waiters thinks that she knows the groom's parents, and she tries to remember how it relates. A teacher recalls how happy she was for her job at an international school and how everything changed 10 years ago. In a classroom, young people suddenly receive a message that scares them...

Innocence is built as a crime, where the threads slowly come together and turn into one story about a fatal school shooting. A raw and inexorable commentary on the senseless gun violence of our time, the opera is particularly about the aftermath of that horrific incident and examines the issue of guilt and responsibility. Can anyone even call themselves innocent?

Innocence appears at the opera in Simon Stone's acclaimed originalist staging. Sofie Elkjær Jensen sings the role of the bride, and Francine Vis is the servant Tereza. Among the other actors are Magnus Vigilius, Stephen Milling — and Erika Hammarberg, who sings traditional Finnish Karjan.

Recommended from 15 years