San Francisco Opera Performs INNOCENCE This June

San Francisco Opera will present the American premiere of composer Kaija Saariaho’s final opera, Innocence, at the War Memorial Opera House from June 1–21. The work, which had its world premiere at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence in 2021, is a co-commission of San Francisco Opera and features an original libretto by Finnish novelist Sofi Oksanen with multilingual translation by dramaturg Aleksi Barrière. The production by director Simon Stone is conducted by Saariaho specialist Clément Mao-Takacs in his Company debut leading the San Francisco Opera Orchestra. Company Chorus Director John Keene prepares the artists of the Opera Chorus.

Innocence is a 105-minute opera in five acts without intermission that is performed in nine languages. The work opens at a wedding reception when a horrific tragedy from the past reemerges. A waitress, Tereza, is serving guests at the wedding when she recognizes the groom as the brother of the gunman who killed her child during a mass shooting at a Helsinki international school 10 years prior. Unfolding along two simultaneous timelines—the wedding and memories of the violent incident—the story explores questions of innocence and guilt in the wake of painful truths.

In conjunction with the U.S. premiere of Innocence, San Francisco Opera, in partnership with local and national partners, will present BEYONDINNOCENCE, an ambitious series of events in May and June bringing together local and national community leaders, activists and the public to explore and promote awareness around the themes in Innocence, including the prevention of gun violence, community resilience and the role the arts can play. In addition to a free daylong symposium on May 31, post-show activations will offer space for collective reflection, dialogue and healing. 

INNOCENCE 

Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho, who passed away on June 2, 2023, at the age of 70, was one of the leading musical forces of opera. In the 1980s, her music was informed by French “spectralist” composers who used computer analysis of the sound-spectrum. She quickly developed a unique musical identity through her personal approaches to harmony and timbre, and the use of the sonorities of electronic and traditional symphonic instruments. Throughout her career she received commissions from the world’s leading operatic, symphonic and chamber music institutions. Her first opera, L’Amour de Loin, set to a libretto by Amin Maalouf, had its premiere at the 2000 Salzburg Festival. She collaborated with Maalouf on her second opera, Adriana Mater, which premiered in 2006 at the Paris Opera and was recently performed by the San Francisco Symphony in June 2023 just days after her passing.

Saariaho’s sixth and final opera, Innocence, is a co-commission and co-production of Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, San Francisco Opera, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Finnish National Opera and Ballet and Dutch National Opera. After a postponement brought on by the global pandemic, the opera was first performed at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence and proclaimed, “the most powerful work Saariaho has written in a career now in its fifth decade” (New York Times). Years before the premiere, the composer heard her score for Innocence performed for the first time in 2018 at the War Memorial Opera House during an early orchestra reading by the San Francisco Opera Orchestra under the baton of Clément Mao-Takacs.

The original libretto for Innocence was written in Finnish by award-winning writer Sofi Oksanen, whose works are regularly translated into English. Her novels include the international bestseller Purge, along with Dog Park, Norma and When the Doves Disappeared. Aleksi Barrière, a writer/director specialized in new opera, who served as Innocence’s dramaturg during its development from 2013 to the world premiere, adapted the libretto into nine languages: English, Finnish, Czech, Romanian, French, Swedish, German, Spanish and Greek.

Director Simon Stone, known for his acclaimed stagings of Korngold’s Die Tote Stadt (Munich’s Bavarian State Opera) and Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor(Metropolitan Opera and LA Opera) along with his directorial work in film (The Dig), created the production for Innocence, which will be remounted by Louise Bakker for its American premiere. The story takes place on a continually rotating, two-level cube by set designer Chloe Lamford and features the work of costume designer Mel Page, lighting designer James Farncombe, sound designer and mixing engineer Timo Kurkikangas and choreography by Arco Renz.

French conductor Clément Mao-Takacs has been associated with Innocence from its early conception and was a frequent collaborator with Saariaho. In 2013 Mao-Takacs conducted the premiere of the chamber version of her oratorio-opera La Passion de Simone and in 2021 led the Japanese premiere of her opera Only the Sound Remains (both directed by Barrière). Mao-Takacs assisted at the first performances of Innocence at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence and conducted the performances at the Finnish National Opera in Helsinki in 2022. He makes his Company debut in the American premiere of Innocence.

The ensemble cast features mezzo-soprano Ruxandra Donose making her role debut as the Waitress, Tereza. Donose first appeared in the U.S. with San Francisco Opera in 1996 as Nicklausse and the Muse in Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann and returned for leading roles in Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea and Handel’s Giulio Cesare. Tenor Miles Mykkanen makes his Company debut as the Bridegroom, Tuomas. Soprano Lilian Farahani, who performed the Bride, Stela, in the world premiere of Innocence, makes her San Francisco Opera debut in the role.

Baritone Rod Gilfry, whose San Francisco Opera credits include Stanley Kowalski in the 1998 world premiere of André Previn’s A Streetcar Named Desire, returns to make his role debut as the Father-in-Law, Henrik. Icelandic bass Kristinn Sigmundsson, who was heard most recently on the War Memorial Opera House stage as King Heinrich in Wagner’s Lohengrin, returns in his role debut as the Priest. Sopranos Claire de Sévigné and acclaimed contemporary specialistLucy Shelton make their debuts with the Company as the Mother-in-Law (Patricia) and Teacher, respectively.

Multi-genre instrumentalist and vocalist Vilma Jää, whose art spans Finnish folk songs to ethno pop, makes her American operatic debut as the student Markéta. Additional students at the international school are portrayed by Beate Mordal, Julie Hega, Rowan Kievits, Camilo Delgado Díaz and Marina Dumont.

Since it first presented a world premiere in 1961, San Francisco Opera has commissioned or co-commissioned more than 30 works for its mainstage and affiliates from leading composers including John Adams, Philip Glass, Jake Heggie, Gabriela Lena Frank, Rhiannon Giddens, Tobias Picker and Bright Sheng. The Company has a parallel history of introducing American audiences to important contemporary works that had their premieres outside of the United States, including (with the American premiere year) Maurice Ravel’s L’Enfant et les Sortilèges (1930), Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites (1957), Strauss’ Die Frau ohne Schatten (1959), Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1961), Janáček’s The Makropulos Case (1966), Reiman’s Lear (1981), Messiaen’s Saint François d’Assise (2002) and Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre (2004). This presentation of Saariaho’s Innocence in San Francisco joins both traditions as both a co-commissioned work and an important American premiere.

Sung and spoken in nine different languages with English supertitles, the six performances of Innocence are scheduled for June 1 (7:30 p.m.), 7 (7:30 p.m.), 12 (7:30 p.m.), 16 (2 p.m.), 18 (7:30 p.m.) and 21 (7:30 p.m.), 2024.

BEYOND INNOCENCE

Inspired by Innocence’s U.S. premiere, San Francisco Opera presents BEYOND INNOCENCE, an ambitious series of events in May and June that will bring together local and national leaders, activists and the public to explore themes such as the prevention of gun violence; collective responsibility; trauma recovery; and community vitality, resilience and healing. A free daylong symposium on Friday, May 31, BEYOND INNOCENCE: The Power of Community and the Arts & the Prevention of Gun Violence, will showcase prominent voices such as Pastor Mike McBride (Live Free USA); UCSF trauma surgeon Dr. Rochelle A. Dicker (Advisor to UCSF’s San Francisco Wraparound Project and Section Chief, Acute Care Surgery) and GIFFORDS’ Mike McLively (Community Violence Intervention Policy Director from GIFFORDS Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence) and moderators including KQED’s Mina Kim, among other participants. Presented in partnership with Live Free USA and Lumahai Productions, the symposium is conceived to help attendees foster new and existing relationships and create connectivity across sectors in order to achieve deep and focused collective impact. The event will be held at San Francisco Opera’s Dianne and Tad Taube Atrium Theater; a number of tickets will be available to the public.

The Company’s other full circle offerings include special community gatherings, art installations and pre-performance talks, as well as trauma-informed training for Company members and artists. Special post-show activations will provide opportunities for advocacy, dialogue and reflection.

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