“Innocence” at SF Opera: a masterpiece about a school shooting

More distressing is the characters' ongoing trauma, its complex layers fearlessly probed by librettist Sofi Oksanen. The waitress resents the shooter's family for the audacity to pursue a future they don't deserve, while the groom's parents and the shooter fight endlessly.

Surviving students cannot stand being in a large crowd or sitting with their backs to a door. They learn not to talk about the shooting, even if it's the only thing they can think about. For the teacher (Lucy Shelton), her very purpose has evaporated. Knowing everything seems useless after filming, she sings in an anguished voice: “Every manual, stupid. Every exam is superfluous.”

Innocence it’s about that loss. Not just a loss of innocence but a loss of meaning or meaning. A loss, caused by guns, of our common bonds.

All of this would be powerful enough on its own. But in the fourth and fifth acts, we are forced to ask ourselves: who is really innocent? As shocking new twists and turns are revealed by students Iris and Markéta (Julie Hega and Vilma Jää, both fascinatingly talented), as well as the groom, his parents and even a priest (Kristinn Sigmundsson), the pain of the shootout gets deeper.

Saariaho's angular, modern score elevates all of this, perfectly matching the mood and timeliness of its subject matter. Jää's use of Finnish folk singing adds to the realism of the story, while an off-stage chorus and surround sound effects give even more gravitas to the tension, discomfort and heartbreak. Over time, the rotating assembly completely transforms. Overall, this is an opera that resembles a film, both in style and length; the whole thing only lasts one hour and 48 minutes.

Innocence is based on a 2008 school shooting in Saariaho's native Finland. At the time, it was a rare situation in the country, but two months ago, just outside Helsinki, a 12-year-old boy took a gun to school and shot classmate.

Meanwhile, I can't count the number of school shootings in the United States. Can you? Since Columbine in 1999, there have been 118 reported active shooter incidents at elementary and secondary schools in the United States. A total of 1,243 people were injured and 440 people were killed. Teachers, children, all with a future. All shot down.

This was supposed to be an opera review, I know. But as a work of art, Innocence is simply masterful, to shake you out of your complacency, to make you think for days. And to never again take a school shooting for granted.

“Innocence” runs through June 21 at the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco. Details here. SF Opera also hosted Beyond Innocence, a series of panel discussions on gun violence and its effects. Details here.