Innocence

Grand Theatre de Provence, Aix-en-Provence, France

Scene 2 from the opera "Innocence", photo 2

Scene 3 from the opera "Innocence", photo 3

Scene 4 from the opera "Innocence", photo 4

Scene 5 from the opera "Innocence", photo 5

Scene 6 from the opera "Innocence", photo 6

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8 PM

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Important Info

Festival: Festival d`Aix-en-Provence 2021

Type: Opera

City: Aix-en-Provence, France

Starts at: 20:00

Acts: 5

Duration: 1h 45min

Sung in: English

Titles in: English,French

Ticket delivery: E-Tickets

E-tickets: Print at home or at the box office of the event if so specified. You will find more information in your booking confirmation email.

Can I choose my seats?

You can only select the category, and not the exact seats.
If you order 2 or 3 tickets: your seats will be next to each other.
If you order 4 or more tickets: your seats will be next to each other, or, if this is not possible, we will provide a combination of groups of seats (at least in pairs, for example 2+2 or 2+3).

Festival

Festival d`Aix-en-Provence 2021

Overview

"Aren’t you always guilty from the moment you run off?"

Sofi Oksanen: Purge, 2008

It is a typical wedding for a cosmopolitan city, in present-day Finland. The fiancé is Finnish, the bride Romanian, and the mother-in-law French. But suddenly, during the wedding banquet, the Czech waitress feels ill… Ten years earlier, these characters were struck by a tragic event. Ghosts revive their memories of the trauma, which occurred in a school; there is a guilty haze, a lost innocence. Kaija Saariaho’s new opera is the result of a meeting between this great composer and another Finnish artist, the novelist Sofi Oksanen, who is unrivalled in her ability to force today’s reality to confront the past. Innocence—multiplot opera for soloists, chorus and orchestra— is a contemporary tragedy made radiant through its powerful music and the intermingling of words from different languages. With this world premiere, conducted by musical director Susanna Mälkki and staged by the Australian theatre director Simon Stone, the Festival d’Aix writes a new page in the history of opera.

COMMISSIONED AND COPRODUCED BY FESTIVAL D'AIX-EN-PROVENCE, FINNISH NATIONAL OPERA AND BALLET, DUTCH NATIONAL OPERA, ROYAL OPERA HOUSE COVENT GARDEN, SAN FRANCISCO OPERA

EN PARTENARIAT AVEC LE METROPOLITAN OPERA

WITH THE SUPPORT OF KAROLINA BLABERG STIFTUNG, JEAN-FRANÇOIS DUBOS, CLAUDE AND TUULIKKI JANSSEN, AMMODO

EDITOR CHESTER MUSIC LTD

History

Premiere of this production: 04 July 2020, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence

Innocence, composed by Kaia Saariaho and written by Sophie Oksanen, is a delightful opera set in two parallel time periods. It deals with the wounds of the past, the passage of time and the act of letting go. There's a wedding party going on in Helsinki, but the groom's family has a dark secret. When events from a decade ago begin to unfold, there is a moment of truth for guests.

Venue Info

Grand Theatre de Provence - Aix-en-Provence
380 Avenue Max Juvénal

The Grand Théâtre de Provence (GTP) is a performance hall located in Aix-en-Provence in the new "Sextius Mirabeau" district. A symbol of the Aix region was used for the design of the volumes of this room: the Sainte-Victoire mountain, recalled in particular by the stones of different colors on the outside.

Inaugurated on June 29, 2007 with the opera La Valkyrie by Richard Wagner, it was designed by the Italian architects Vittorio Gregotti and Paolo Colao to host operas and concerts of the Festival international d'art lyrique d'Aix-en-Provence and funded by the Pays d'Aix community.

It has 1,370 seats, including 950 on the floor.

Directed since its opening by Dominique Bluzet, as part of a public service delegation, it hosts dance performances and symphonic or chamber music concerts. Since 2013, it has served as a setting for the Aix-en-Provence Easter Festival, created by violinist Renaud Capuçon and Dominique Bluzet with the support of the CIC.

This theater is mounted on a spring, in order to effectively eliminate parasitic vibrations from the nearby railway track.

The Grand Théâtre de Provence has been the residence of the French Youth Orchestra since December 2007, of the Café Zimmermann ensemble since 2011, and of the Philharmonic Chamber since 2015/2016.