Opera

Day of Night (2024-2026)

opera in three acts
2 hours

Publisher: Edition Wilhelm Hansen
Orchestration: soprano, yoik singer, mezzo-soprano, tenor, baritone, choir (SATB) and orchestra

My second opera, Day of Night (Finnish: Yön päivä), is based on Niillas Holmberg’s debut novel Halla Helle (Gummerus, 2021). The libretto was written by French-Finnish author and translator Aleksi Barrière.

Set primarily in and around Ohcejohka (Utsjoki) in the 2020s, the opera tells the story of Áile, a young Sámi woman torn between the contradicting values of a burgeoning international career as a visual artist and those of the traditional Sámi way of life. As the gap between her two identities widens, she begins to have increasingly frightening dreams that seem to be coming true. To interpret these dreams, which are filled with Sámi symbols, she needs help from the people who, with their own hopes and desires, have surrounded her. The opera is a story of the collapse and reconstruction of the mind in the northern Sámi region, where the demands of the global economy clash with an indigenous culture living in harmony with nature.

I composed a unique musical profile for each character in the opera, and in the case of the Sámi characters, these profiles are based on existing joiks. Áile’s identities are portrayed by two different singers; the visual artist person by a soprano and the Sámi person by a Sámi joik singer. Áile’s material is based on the Láve Nigá Risten’s joik from the Tana valley. This joik is the story of a Sámi woman from Buolbmát originally named Láve Nigá Risten but called Kristine Margit Måsø (1920–1944), who died in childbirth along with her newborn child just four years after her marriage. Sámi activist Erke’s joik is based on the joik of Risten’s father, Láve Nigá. The landscape is depicted by the joik of the Fell Rástegáisá, prominently heard as an obligato on the French horns, while an old Southern Sámi lullaby Sjamma, Sjamma also plays a central musical role. Joiks are musical portraits shaped by the community for a particular person or object; although a joik bears a person's name, it is not their own composition.

The three-act opera Day of Night is a co-commission and co-production by Aalto Musiktheater Essen and the Finnish National Opera, with a running time of two hours. The opera will have its world premiere on February 27, 2027, at Aalto Musiktheater Essen in Germany, directed by Skolt Sámi film and theater director Pauliina Feodoroff. The languages of the opera are English, Finnish, Norwegian, German, along with Northern and Southern Sámi.

Score

Premiere: February 27, 2027
Aalto Musiktheater, Essen, Germany
Conductor: Jonathan Stockhammer
Director and Video: Pauliina Feodoroff
Set and Costume Design: Hanna Parry/ Outi Pieski
Lighting and Video: Jenni Pystynen
Choir Master: Bernhard Schneider
Dramaturgie: Patricia Knebel/ Elena Wachendorf

Characters
Áile: Lavinia Dames
Áile of her ancestors (yoik singer): Marja Mortensson
Samuel: Roman Payer
Marja: Bettina Ranch
Erke: Tobias Greenhalgh
Dancers: Gáddjá Haarla Pieski and Biret Haarla Pieski
Essen Philharmonic Orchestra
The Chorus of Aalto Musiktheater Essen

Other performances:
March 6, 2027
March 17, 2027
March 20, 2027
April 10, 2027
April 15, 2027
April 18, 2027

Finnish premiere: October, 2027
The Finnish National Opera and Ballet, Helsinki, Finland
Áile:
Áile of her ancestors (yoik singer):
Samuel:
Marja:
Erke:
Dancers:
The Chorus of the Finnish National Opera
The Orchestra of the Finnish National Opera, cond.

Other performances:
October, 2027