The UK premiere of Adriana Mater , Kaija Saariaho’s second opera will take place on April 24 at the Barbican. The BBCSO, conducted by Edward Gardner are joined by Gordon Geitz and Solveig Kringelborn from the premiere production at the Bastille and Monica Groop and Jyrki Korhonen from Finnish National Opera’s co-production earlier this year. Saariaho takes as her theme the brutality of war. A woman is raped; a son is born; will the son take after his mother or his father? The son, learning of his violent conception, vows to kill his father. But an unexpected twist brings an unexpected end.
‘Adriana Mater, the new opera by the heralded Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho, borrows its haunting narrative from our own age and shows it to be a story for all time.’ New York Times
‘Conducting, Edward Gardner draws some ravishing playing from the orchestra — sensual and disturbing, but driven and tense in equal measure.’ The Times
