The Metropolitan Opera's 2025-26 season of Saturday matinee broadcasts continues on April 18 with a performance of Kaija Saariaho's "Innocence" — the network broadcast premiere of this acclaimed final opera by the late Finnish composer.
With a gripping libretto by Sofi Oksanen and Aleksi Barrière that encompasses nine different languages, "Innocence" explores the complex web of trauma and communal guilt left in the wake of a shooting at an international high school. The ensemble cast, performing in a wide range of vocal styles, includes Joyce DiDonato and Vilma Jää as a grieving mother and the daughter she lost in the shooting; Jacquelyn Stucker and Miles Mykkanen as a newlywed couple and Kathleen Kim and Rod Gilfry as the groom's parents, who have hidden their family’s dark past from the bride.
Maestro Susanna Mälkki, who conducted the opera's 2021 world premiere in France, now leads the Met Orchestra and Chorus in Saariaho's haunting score.
Note: Please be advised that the opera deals with the emotional aftermath of a school shooting ten years after the event. Characters describe their memories of the violence, but it is not depicted in the opera.
Listen to the broadcast of "Innocence" on Classical IPR at 1 p.m. on Saturday, April 18, 2026.
Read the synopsis from the Metropolitan Opera.
Composer: Kaija Saariaho
Libretto: Sofi Oksanen and Aleksi Barrière
CAST
Waitress: Joyce DiDonato
Markéta: Vilma Jää
Bride: Jacquelyn Stucker
Bridegroom: Miles Mykkanen
Mother-in-law: Kathleen Kim
Father-in-law: Rod Gilfry
Anton: Simon Kluth
Jerónimo: Camilo Delgado Díaz
Lily: Beate Mordal
Teacher: Lucy Shelton
Alexia: Marina Dumont Anastassiadou
Iris: Julie Hega
Priest: Stephen Milling
Actors: Jairus Abts, Oksana Barrios, Sam Hannum, Niara Hardister, Jalen Justice, Minga Prather, Brian Soutner, Brant Zheng
