This spring, Susanna Mälkki returns to the Metropolitan Opera to conduct Innocence, Kaija Saariaho’s final opera. The late, great Finnish composer was a close friend and collaborator of the conductor, and this relationship comes across in her deep understanding of the score.
Depicting the wide web of trauma left in the wake of a school shooting, Innocence is a raw and unflinching cri de coeur in response to the senseless violence of our modern age. For its Met premiere—in Simon Stone’s powerfully direct original production—the cast is anchored by mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato and Finnish ethno-pop singer Vilma Jää as a grieving mother and the daughter she lost in the shooting, as well as soprano Jacquelyn Stucker and tenor Miles Mykkanen as a young couple whose wedding, a decade after the tragedy, uncovers buried secrets and reopens old wounds. The performances take place on April 6, 11, 14, 18, 22, 25 and 29.
After the opera run has started, Mälkki will also travel to Boston to conduct three concerts on April 16, 17 and 18, leading the Boston Symphony orchestra in Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite and Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances. The pièce de resistance for those evenings will be the world premiere of Andrew Norman’s Split, for two pianos and orchestra, with Lucas and Arthur Jussen as the soloists.