San Francisco Opera hosts the American Premiere of INNOCENCE

San Francisco Opera presented the U.S. premiere of Innocence, the final opera by the late Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho, on Saturday, June 1.

The work which follows the survivors and victims’ families ten years after a mass shooting incident at an international school has won wide acclaim in Europe and was proclaimed “a masterpiece” by the New York Times. At San Francisco’s War Memorial Opera House, the opening night audience showed their appreciation for members of the stage crew who took the first bow, the San Francisco Opera Chorus, the cast, creative team, and the opera’s librettist Sofi Oksanen and dramaturg and son of the composer Aleksi Barrière. Saariaho specialist Clément Mao-Takacs made his Company debut conducting the San Francisco Opera Orchestra in this milestone premiere of a work that was co-commissioned by San Francisco Opera.