Review by Lisa Lanzi
Innocence, although a fictitious construct, is a menacingly pertinent production given the unsettling number of school shootings that still occur around the world, well, mainly in the USA. Many opera narratives have some darkness within like Bluebeard's Castle by Bartók or Penderecki's Paradise Lost however, depending on direction and staging, few deliver dread as convincingly as Kaija Saariaho’s (1952 - 2023) work does.
The production is a co-commission and co-production of Festival d’Aix-en-Provence (premiering there in July 2021 at the Grand Théâtre de Provence), San Francisco Opera, Dutch National Opera, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Finnish National Opera and Ballet Helsinki and in partnership with the Metropolitan Opera NY. It has already played London’s Royal Opera House, the Dutch National Opera and San Francisco Opera and will move on to New York at the Metropolitan after the Adelaide Festival season.
In 2017 Betroffenheit toured here for the Festival with similar intensity - the word means ‘shock, bewilderment, or impact’. Created by Canadian actor / creator Jonathon Young and choreographer Crystal Pite the dance theatre work also traversed the domain of unbearable tragedy and the prospect (or not) of transformation and healing in the aftermath. I would describe Innocence as more of a theatrical ‘event’ than opera with lavish use of both Sprechstimme and Sprechgesang. Yet it transcends both genres with almost filmic or visual art overtones - think Hitchcock or de Chirico - with deep shadows, looming architecture, and intriguing narrative twists. Director Simon Stone is quite the Renaissance artist. Actor, writer, director of film, theatre, TV, and opera - an Australian born in Switzerland - Stone’s vision for this production is immense, courageous, insightful, and heartfelt.
All layers merge without many jarring moments: The enigmatic, sometimes atonal but sublime Saariaho composition, Chloe Lamford’s magnificent and imposing set plus other design elements (lighting by James Farncombe and Mel Page’s costumes), the performances, the singing, the actors and the crew performing tech miracles as the set revolves. Adelaide Symphony musicians were led with passion and precision by guest conductor Clément Mao-Takacs who has had an intimate artistic relationship with both the composer and this work from its inception. He then served as conductor through three seasons prior to this and his knowledge, talent, and dedication has brought out the best in our local musicians. The original Finnish libretto was written by Sofi Oksanen but Saariaho’s son and dramaturg Aleksi Barrière has translated sections into English, Czech, French, German, Greek, Romanian, Spanish and Swedish, suiting the fictional international school venue.
Innocence unfolds in present-day Finland around a wedding feast where the family story is not what it seems and the waitress (a luminous Jenny Carlstedt) recognises the groom as the brother of the shooter that killed her daughter. Scenes shift back and forth in time (although not in a linear fashion), examining both during and ten years after an incident at an international school where ten students and a teacher were killed. The opening scenes begin with very deep, disturbing piano chords as we encounter a number of the survivors explaining the way lingering trauma affects daily life: one cannot sit with their back to a door, another cannot work nor concentrate for long. Each character possesses a distinct, stylized physicality that parallels their trauma response, presumably the work of choreographer Arco Renz. Placement of certain performers is creative and quite abstract or puppet-like at times whereas generally the movement of performers throughout the two-level set is systematic and natural.
A very fine cast has been assembled, some the originators of their role and others new to the experience. Additionally, unseen members of the Adelaide Chamber Singers and State Opera South Australia Chorus (led by Christine Anderson) add to the musical and vocal complexity from the rear complementing the eerie atmosphere with marvellous command of tone and volume. A cast of actors also inhabit the space playing students, bodies, or wedding guests.
Student One (Markéta) is played by Erika Hammarberg, her ethereal vocals standing out from other lines due to inclusion of elements from Finno-Ugric folk songs and the herding calls of the Sámi folk. Lucy Shelton is the aged teacher who survived but never returned to the classroom. This role is intense and her vocals scream, growl and whisper as the performer almost viscerally drags the sounds from her body. It is impossible to fit all accolades into this one review but Julie Hega portraying Student Three (Iris) is chilling as she initiates the narrative shift by confessing complicity in the tragedy. From here events unfold tumultuously with further hidden facts revealed. As the ending approaches, the past and present overlap is more obvious and bloodied victims from the past frame the chaos of the family drama and the groom’s confession that he knew of his brother’s intention to wield a gun.
During five uninterrupted acts, the hyper-real two storey structure with rooms and exterior balconies is a character in itself, and it is enthralling. Able to revolve, the spaces within the structure change appearance regularly when a large crew carry out the lightning fast alterations on whatever side of the set faces upstage and is hidden from the audience. Over the course of the performance, more of the ‘school’ is revealed, from the detritus common to any classroom to bloody smears left by the dying. As the ‘present’ family story splinters, more facts from the past highlight the tenuous divide between victim and perpetrator. Themes of bullying and abuse are juxtaposed by those of survivor guilt and family dynamics. Never is there an aura of judgement though. We are left to dissect our own responses to the facts presented and to decide for ourselves where blame or innocence may or may not reside.
Though I could happily experience the entirety of Innocence again, the scale and brilliance did make me ponder the plight of our wonderful Australian performing arts creatives and the changing arts landscape in contrast to this lavish production. The costs, the unbridled support for time and creative effort to make a show of this calibre and complexity would not be possible here and I find that very disheartening. There is certainly the talent and the imagination in Australia - but where is the daring on the funding front?
