BETWEEN
AN OPERA OF SILENCE AND UNTAMED FORCES
PERFORMANCES:
Finnish National Opera,
Almi Hall, Helsinki
Wed 31.8.2022 at 19.30
Fri 2.9.2022 at 19.30
Sat 3.9.2022 at 16.00
Between will be premiered at the Finnish National Opera in August 2022
Ideals and deeds, mind and body, music and theatre – unexpected and head
spinning spaces open up in the border areas of these themes. We follow a
character in an apocalyptic world, to whom the veil of reality rises through
words, sounds, and images.
Kaija Saariaho‘s first stage work, Study for Life, had its only performance in
February 1981. Now the new generation is bringing its own interpretation of
this enigmatic first step towards opera, combining it with a stage version of
the violin concerto Graal Théâtre.
The new generation is also represented by composers Sebastian Hilli and Matias
Vestergård with their poetic visions of soundscapes. The combinations of the
four works ascend to an eloquent premiere, an opera of silence and untamed
forces.
Music: Kaija Saariaho, Matias Vestergård, Sebastian Hilli
Production: Music theatre company La Chambre aux échos
Direction and video: Aleksi Barrière
Stage and lighting design: Étienne Exbrayat
Audio and video technology: Jean-Baptiste Barrière
Visual Arts (Study for Life): Martin Atanasov
Conductor: Clément Mao-Takacs
Actor: Thomas Kellner
Soprano: Tuuli Lindeberg
Solo Violin: Peter Herresthal
Orchestra: Secession Orchestra
Performance production in Finland: Teatro Productions
Producer: Kaisa Näreranta
The workshop version of Study for Life / Graal Théâtre was presented at the
Viitasaari Music Time Festival in 2019.
Text translations: Aleksi Barrière
Programme
Study for Life (1981, rev. 2019)
Music: Kaija Saariaho
Text: Thomas Stearns Eliot – The Hollow Men
…through its darkness (2019, rev. 2021)
Matias Vestergård
Peach (2019, rev. 2021)
Sebastian Hilli
Graal Théâtre (1994, rev. 2018)
Music: Kaija Saariaho
Text: Aleksi Barrière – Not A Knight
CONTACT & INTERVIEW REQUESTS
Kaisa Näreranta
Teatro Productions
+358 50 584 4876
kaisa@teatro.fi