Innocence

Det Kongelige Kapel, Det Kongelige Operakor, Det Kgl. Teater + 15 more

Friday 6 November 2026, 20:00Operaen - Store Scene, Copenhagen

About the concert

An unsettling and all too relevant musical story about the trauma that follows in the wake of a school shooting. Sofi Oksanen, who has received the Nordic Council Literature Prize among other honours, has written the text, which in Aleksi Barrière's translation supports in the finest way the music of the recently deceased Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho's last opera. The staging is by the Australian Simon Stone, so it is 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 protective maple-wood heart of Operaen. A woman reveals that she sleeps best under the bed or in the wardrobe. The two places where the monsters of her childhood lived. There is great joy at a wedding party, where the guests are celebrating the newlyweds. One of the waitresses thinks she knows the groom's parents, and she tries to remember how it all fits together. A teacher recalls how happy she was in her job at an international school, and how everything changed 10 years ago. In a classroom the young people suddenly receive a message that frightens them ... Innocence is built up like a crime thriller, where the threads slowly come together and become one story about a school shooting with a fatal outcome. The opera is a raw and relentless commentary on the senseless gun violence of our time, and it is especially about the aftermath of the terrible incident and examines the question of guilt and responsibility. Can anyone possibly call themselves innocent? Innocence is shown at the opera in Simon Stone's acclaimed original staging. Sofie Elkjær Jensen sings the role of the bride, and Francine Vis is the waitress Tereza. Among the other performers are Magnus Vigilius, Stephen Milling - and Erika Hammarberg, who sings traditional Finnish karjankutsuu. Innocence is an opera in 5 acts and an epilogue without an interval. The music is by Kaija Saariaho, the original Finnish libretto is by Sofi Oksanen, and the multilingual libretto is by dramaturg Aleksi Barrière. The opera had its world premiere on 3 July 2021 at Festival d'Aix-en-Provence. Innocence is sung in English, Finnish, Czech, French, Romanian, Swedish, German, Spanish and Greek with Danish and English surtitles. Co-production and co-commission in collaboration with Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, Nationale Opera & Ballet in Amsterdam, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Finlands Nationalopera and San Francisco Opera. In partnership with the Metropolitan Opera. Recommended from age 15