Innocence

We are familiar with death in opera, but in Innocence we are forced to face violence and death in its immediacy. This is not ancient history. This is today. Rather than innocence, this opera highlights guilt, regrets, anger, grief and loss. Two incidents ten years apart – a school shooting which resulted in the death of ten students and one adult, and a wedding which heralds a new beginning for a family as well as the bride and groom.

The first note of the overture sets the scene: stark sombre, menacing. The mood moves to more cheerful themes, echoing the two narratives within this opera. In one there is an horrific crime at an International School in Finland. Ten years later a wedding is being celebrated. While those students who survived the shooting are still strongly affected by the incident, the wedding is seen by the family concerned, as a fresh beginning. This family has a connection to the earlier incident. The groom, who is the brother of the shooter, is marrying a young woman from another country, Ignorant of the family’s history. Called in to help with the wedding feast, Tereza, mother of one of the young students who was shot, seethes with anger that this family is free to continues their lives where she is left bereft, her daughter being robbed of any future.

It is all there. The juxtaposition of the timelines and a wedding, while a tragedy unfolds inexorably. Well in to the opera the chorus chant ‘when it happened’ and the orchestra, through drum raps, trumpets, and staggered rhythm bring the incident in the school into brutal focus. enacted on the stage/

One young boy pulled the trigger, but many were left with a feeling of guilt. In the reactions of his family, his teacher and the local priest, we see a suffering endured by those who remain. There is nothing to see of innocence here.

The composer Kaija Saariaho, noted for her polyphonic textures has used individual instruments within the orchestra to great effect; for example the individuality of the piano, and the melancholy sound of the bassoon. The music is an integral part, not just a support for the singers or for the action on stage.The chorus and actors were also an essential element to the unfolding drama. The lighting and set are designed to complement the two narratives, working side by side. Simon Stone, as director, must be given much credit. 

As for the main singers – each and every one was magnificent, bringing the strength of emotion and anguish, awareness of loss and hope for better things to life. 

This is one opera, rightly praised internationally, where the sum of the parts, all equal, create a magnificent whole. All the elements lead to that final dramatic scene and then the unsatisfying resolution, in that while there were new beginnings they did not obliterate the past.

Innocence  Festival Theatre

 28 Feb- 5 March
Photo: Andrew Beveridge