(Credit: Karen Almond / Met Opera)

The Metropolitan Opera is set to present the company premiere of “Innocence,” Kaija Saariaho’s final opera,

The opera, which has a libretto by Sofi Oksanen and Aleksi Barrière, will be directed by Simon Stone and conducted by Susanna Mälkki.

The opera is set during a wedding in Helsinki, ten years after a shooting at an international school. The plot unfolds as the celebrants realize they can’t escape their connection to the traumatic past event.

The cast includes Joyce DiDonato as the Waitress, Finnish ethno-pop singer Vilma Jää as her daughter, Markéta, Lucy Shelton as the Teacher, Jacquelyn Stucker as the Bride, and tenor Miles Mykkanen is the Bridegroom at the fateful wedding.

The cast is rounded out by Kathleen Kim, Rod Gilfry, Stephen Milling, Beate Mordal, Julie Hega, Camilo Delgado Díaz, Marina Dumont Anastassiadou, and actor Simon Kluth.

The opera is set to run through April 29 and will be broadcast on April 6 and 18 on Metropolitan Opera Radio.

Read Related Stories 

• Q & A: Vilma Jää on Performing Markéta in Saariaho’s ‘Innocence’ & her Dream of Reviving Finnish Folk Music Traditions
• Festival d’Aix-En-Provence 2021 Review: Innocence