A wedding party turns into a gripping psychological thriller in which the murky past catches up with the present.
Opera in five acts
Finnish original libretto by Sofi Oksanen. Multilingual translation & dramaturgy by Aleksi Barrière
Performed in English, Finnish, Czech, French, Romanian, Swedish, German, Spanish and Greek with German and English supertitles
Premiere
15. March 2025
Dates & Cast
- Conductor Maxime Pascal
- Staging Lorenzo Fioroni
- Set Design Paul Zoller
- Costume Design Annette Braun
- Lighting Design Fabio Antoci
- Choir Jonathan Becker
- Sounddesign Timo Kurkikangas
- Dramaturgy Dorothee Harpain
- The Waitress (Tereza) Paula Murrihy
- The Bride (Stela) Rosalia Cid
- The Mother-In-Law (Patricia) Anu Komsi
- The Bridegroom (Tuomas) Mario Lerchenberger
- The Father-In-Law (Henrik) Markus Butter
- The Priest Jukka Rasilainen
- The Teacher Fredrika Brillembourg
- Schülerin 1 (Markéta) Venla Blom
- Schülerin 2 (Lilly) Jessica Elevant
- Schülerin 3 (Iris) Nusch Batut
- Schüler 4 (Anton) Simon Jensen
- Schüler 5 (Jerónimo) Carlo Neviio Wilfart
- Schülerin 6 (Alexia) Olga Heikkilä
- Conductor Maxime Pascal
- Staging Lorenzo Fioroni
- Set Design Paul Zoller
- Costume Design Annette Braun
- Lighting Design Fabio Antoci
- Choir Jonathan Becker
- Sounddesign Timo Kurkikangas
- Dramaturgy Dorothee Harpain
- The Waitress (Tereza) Paula Murrihy
- The Bride (Stela) Rosalia Cid
- The Mother-In-Law (Patricia) Anu Komsi
- The Bridegroom (Tuomas) Mario Lerchenberger
- The Father-In-Law (Henrik) Markus Butter
- The Priest Jukka Rasilainen
- The Teacher Fredrika Brillembourg
- Schülerin 1 (Markéta) Venla Blom
- Schülerin 2 (Lilly) Jessica Elevant
- Schülerin 3 (Iris) Nusch Batut
- Schüler 4 (Anton) Simon Jensen
- Schüler 5 (Jerónimo) Carlo Neviio Wilfart
- Schülerin 6 (Alexia) Olga Heikkilä
- Conductor Maxime Pascal
- Staging Lorenzo Fioroni
- Set Design Paul Zoller
- Costume Design Annette Braun
- Lighting Design Fabio Antoci
- Choir Jonathan Becker
- Sounddesign Timo Kurkikangas
- Dramaturgy Dorothee Harpain
- The Waitress (Tereza) Paula Murrihy
- The Bride (Stela) Rosalia Cid
- The Mother-In-Law (Patricia) Anu Komsi
- The Bridegroom (Tuomas) Mario Lerchenberger
- The Father-In-Law (Henrik) Markus Butter
- The Priest Jukka Rasilainen
- The Teacher Fredrika Brillembourg
- Schülerin 1 (Markéta) Venla Blom
- Schülerin 2 (Lilly) Jessica Elevant
- Schülerin 3 (Iris) Nusch Batut
- Schüler 4 (Anton) Simon Jensen
- Schüler 5 (Jerónimo) Carlo Neviio Wilfart
- Schülerin 6 (Alexia) Olga Heikkilä
- Conductor Maxime Pascal
- Staging Lorenzo Fioroni
- Set Design Paul Zoller
- Costume Design Annette Braun
- Lighting Design Fabio Antoci
- Choir Jonathan Becker
- Sounddesign Timo Kurkikangas
- Dramaturgy Dorothee Harpain
- The Waitress (Tereza) Paula Murrihy
- The Bride (Stela) Rosalia Cid
- The Mother-In-Law (Patricia) Anu Komsi
- The Bridegroom (Tuomas) Mario Lerchenberger
- The Father-In-Law (Henrik) Markus Butter
- The Priest Jukka Rasilainen
- The Teacher Fredrika Brillembourg
- Schülerin 1 (Markéta) Venla Blom
- Schülerin 2 (Lilly) Jessica Elevant
- Schülerin 3 (Iris) Nusch Batut
- Schüler 4 (Anton) Simon Jensen
- Schüler 5 (Jerónimo) Carlo Neviio Wilfart
- Schülerin 6 (Alexia) Olga Heikkilä
- Conductor Maxime Pascal
- Staging Lorenzo Fioroni
- Set Design Paul Zoller
- Costume Design Annette Braun
- Lighting Design Fabio Antoci
- Choir Jonathan Becker
- Sounddesign Timo Kurkikangas
- Dramaturgy Dorothee Harpain
- The Waitress (Tereza) Paula Murrihy
- The Bride (Stela) Rosalia Cid
- The Mother-In-Law (Patricia) Anu Komsi
- The Bridegroom (Tuomas) Mario Lerchenberger
- The Father-In-Law (Henrik) Markus Butter
- The Priest Jukka Rasilainen
- The Teacher Fredrika Brillembourg
- Schülerin 1 (Markéta) Venla Blom
- Schülerin 2 (Lilly) Jessica Elevant
- Schülerin 3 (Iris) Nusch Batut
- Schüler 4 (Anton) Simon Jensen
- Schüler 5 (Jerónimo) Carlo Neviio Wilfart
- Schülerin 6 (Alexia) Olga Heikkilä
- Conductor Maxime Pascal
- Staging Lorenzo Fioroni
- Set Design Paul Zoller
- Costume Design Annette Braun
- Lighting Design Fabio Antoci
- Choir Jonathan Becker
- Sounddesign Timo Kurkikangas
- Dramaturgy Dorothee Harpain
- The Waitress (Tereza) Paula Murrihy
- The Bride (Stela) Rosalia Cid
- The Mother-In-Law (Patricia) Anu Komsi
- The Bridegroom (Tuomas) Mario Lerchenberger
- The Father-In-Law (Henrik) Markus Butter
- The Priest Jukka Rasilainen
- The Teacher Fredrika Brillembourg
- Schülerin 1 (Markéta) Venla Blom
- Schülerin 2 (Lilly) Jessica Elevant
- Schülerin 3 (Iris) Nusch Batut
- Schüler 4 (Anton) Simon Jensen
- Schüler 5 (Jerónimo) Carlo Neviio Wilfart
- Schülerin 6 (Alexia) Olga Heikkilä
- Conductor Maxime Pascal
- Staging Lorenzo Fioroni
- Set Design Paul Zoller
- Costume Design Annette Braun
- Lighting Design Fabio Antoci
- Choir Jonathan Becker
- Sounddesign Timo Kurkikangas
- Dramaturgy Dorothee Harpain
- The Waitress (Tereza) Paula Murrihy
- The Bride (Stela) Rosalia Cid
- The Mother-In-Law (Patricia) Anu Komsi
- The Bridegroom (Tuomas) Mario Lerchenberger
- The Father-In-Law (Henrik) Markus Butter
- The Priest Jukka Rasilainen
- The Teacher Fredrika Brillembourg
- Schülerin 1 (Markéta) Venla Blom
- Schülerin 2 (Lilly) Jessica Elevant
- Schülerin 3 (Iris) Nusch Batut
- Schüler 4 (Anton) Simon Jensen
- Schüler 5 (Jerónimo) Carlo Neviio Wilfart
- Schülerin 6 (Alexia) Olga Heikkilä
Related event
In brief
Can the past be denied and memories erased? After a mass shooting at an international school, pupils, parents and teachers are left horrified and traumatised. The teenage perpetrator is committed to a psychiatric ward. Ten years later, Stela is celebrating her wedding to Tuomas, who she met in her home country of Romania, together with his parents and a priest. She is so happy that she doesn’t ask why there are so few guests. But the waitress hints that there is something Stela doesn’t know – that her groom has another brother.
„Innocence“ is the fifth and final opera by Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho (1952 –2023). Following its acclaimed premiere at the d’Aix-en-Provence Festival in 2021, it went on to enjoy great success in London, Helsinki and Amsterdam. This work deals with acutely relevant questions: What happens to a society after such a gruesome and disturbing act of violence? How can trauma be overcome? Together with librettist Sofi Oksanen and dramaturge Aleksi Barrière, Kaija Saariaho created a gripping yet poignant psychological thriller that relentlessly unpicks the characters’ entangled culpability, layer by layer, while leaving unanswered the question of each person’s guilt or innocence.
Storyline
The story unfolds on two levels: On the one hand, a wedding ceremony is taking place in present-day Helsinki, while on the other, seven people are telling of the consequences of a traumatic event that took place ten years earlier. Only gradually does it become clear how intertwined the two storylines are ...
Act I
Tuomas and Stela are celebrating their wedding. They met in Bucharest and Romanian Stela followed her husband to his native Finland. The groom's parents, Patricia and Henrik, rejoice at their son's happiness. His father thinks the bride should have been told about "the tragedy," but his mother persuades him not to.
Six former students and a teacher talk about the consequences of a traumatic incident that occurred at an international school ten years earlier. Since then, they have found it difficult to participate in "normal" everyday life.
Act II
Tereza has stepped in as a waitress on short notice and only upon arriving does she learn whose wedding she is attending: shocked, she finds that the bride is taking on a name that destroyed her life ten years earlier.
The groom's parents get into an argument: When his mother wishes that the firstborn son could also come to the wedding, his father says that she is crazy. This son no longer belongs to the family after "the tragedy."
The teacher and former students remember what they were doing on the morning of the tragedy. One of them – Markéta, Tereza's daughter – was killed. Tereza finds it difficult to accept this and let go of her daughter.
Act III
Tereza is shocked to discover that the bride is unaware of the tragedy. Meanwhile, the priest tries to comfort Patricia, who accuses herself of raising a monster. Tereza learns that the murderer was released shortly before the wedding and accuses the groom's father of being partly responsible for the act. He tries to calm her.
The teacher and former students remember the day of the rampage: ten students and one teacher died. There was great media attention, and politicians and journalists took part in the memorial services. While public interest soon waned, the mourners had to “learn not to remember.”
Act IV
Tereza reveals the truth to the bride: the groom is the gunman's brother. Patricia counters that Markéta was not an angel either – she had written mocking songs about her son.
The perpetrator was bullied by his classmates. They forced him to undress in the shower room, filmed it, and shared the videos. Only in Iris did the perpetrator find an ally: together they shot at photos of their classmates in the gravel pit.
Act V
Stela confronts Tuomas. Despite the incident, she still loves him. But Tuomas does not believe in a future together. For the first time, he reveals that his brother, Iris, and he had planned the rampage together. Iris and he stopped short at the last moment, destroying any clues that might implicate them. Tuomas could have prevented the act, but he saw his brother as a hero and still loves him despite all his feelings of shame and guilt.
Epilogue
In spite of the traumatic experience, some of the students manage to start a new life. Markéta asks her mother Tereza to let go of her.
