| Text | Juho-Sire/Siri Broch Johansen |
| Joiks | Emil Kárlsen |
| Commissioner | Oulu City Theatre & Oulu Sinfonia |
| Publisher | Gehrmans Musikförlag |
| Category | Opera |
| Year | 2025 |
| Duration | 120 min |
| Orchestration | 9 soloists, choir and orchestra (2222-2220-perc- 65432) |
Team
Music: Cecilia Damström
Joiks: Emil Kárlsen
Libretto: Juho-Sire/Siri Broch Johansen
Direction: Heta Haanperä
Conductor: Rumon Gamba
Associate conductor: Aku Sorensen
Orchestra: Oulu Symphony Orchestra
Set Design: Geir Tore Holm
Costume Design: Helmi Hagelin / Bihtošoabbá Helme
Light design: Øystein Heitmann
Sound design: Jari Niemi
Makeup and hair: Kateryna Vodina
Choreography: Auri Ahola
Choir Director: Kristian Heberg
Libretto consulting: Oda Radoor
Director’s Assistance: Ánna-Katri Helander
Repetiteur: Outi Nissi
Cast
Ovllá: Emil Kárlsen
Ánná: Ánne Maddji Heatta
Ovllá’s Mother: Sara Margarethe Oskal
Ovllá’s Father: Ánndaris/Anders Rimpi
The Gatekeeper and Lemet (Ánná’s Father): Niko Valkeapää
The Dormitory Director: Sanna Iljin
The Teacher and Kauko: Martin Iivarinen (and Henri Uusitalo 27-28.2 performances)
Markku (and Ovllá cover): Aki Saarela
Martti: Ville Hummastenniemi
Child actor (two per show): Eevi Jomppanen, Sandra Kaisto, Jooa Labba, Mariella Labba, Joose Rasmus, Elle-Sofia Valkeapää
Choir
Päivi Ahokas, Jorma Ainassaari, Kaisu Ainassaari, Outi Aine, Touko Hukkanen, Aslak Kipinä, Birgitta Kropsu, Pekka Kurttila, Kati Käkelä, Otava Lankila. Minttu Luomala, Matti Mertala, Aurora Nousiainen, Ursula Nousiainen, Ari Oja, Antti Palsola, Saku Pekkarinen, Sakaria Pouke (SWING, koululaiset), Tuula-Liina Rees, Ulla Riekki, Petra Rissanen, Anna Salmi, Lotta Salo, Jan Schwenzer, Ulla Tolppa, Päivi Tossavainen, Lauri Tuovinen, Markku Vaitiniemi, Arttu Vilmi, Kaisa Vähänen and Sampo Westerberg.
Program note
Ovllá is an opera about the disappearance of truth and about profound loneliness. It tells the story of having one’s roots and cultural heritage torn apart. When a child is separated from their parents and forced into a boarding school, they encounter an unfamiliar language and culture. This experience leads to the trauma of abandonment and isolation. What was once familiar becomes foreign, and the child grows up ashamed of their identity. This sense of alienation forms an identity that offers no peace.
Our protagonist, a victim of assimilation policies, has lost something crucial that he has buried and tried to forget: Who he is. Love awakens a desire to return to his roots and helps Ovllá realize that one cannot simply decide to become someone else. Can Ovllá stop forgetting and choose to start remembering?
Ovllá is written by Sámi playwright Juho-Sire/Siri Broch Johansen, composed by Finnish composer Cecilia Damström with consultation from Sámi composer Ánndaris / Anders Rimpi and directed by Oulu Theatre’s director Heta Haanperä. The opera’s orchestra is Oulu Sinfonia, conducted by Oulu Sinfonia’s chief conductor Rumon Gamba.
The music evokes grand and flowing sonic landscapes deeply rooted in Sámi nature. However, beneath the beauty lies a stark narrative of struggle: colonial powers like Finland, have stripped the Indigenous Sámi peoples of their harmonious coexistence with nature, seeking to replace it with industrialisation and institutionalisation. This is reflected in the music, where the natural flow is juxtaposed with rhythm, order, and rigidity. Amid this orchestral dialogue, the authentic voices of Sámi joikers emerge, embodying the resilience of individuals reclaiming an identity stolen from them in childhood.
The composer, Cecilia Damström, will write the music in close collaboration with Sámi musicians, who will compose all the joiks we hear in the opera. Their joiks will be an integral part of the musical composition to honor their heritage and integrate their voices into a shared musical expression.
The production brings to the Main stage of Oulu City Theatre the perspective of the Sámi, the only indigenous people of the Nordic countries, and the painful consequences of state-led oppression that continue to affect new generations of Sámi.
At the heart of the opera is the sharing of knowledge and taking responsibility for state-led injustices, as well as highlighting the experiences of the Sámi people. While the work critically examines societal structures and discrimination, it also gently focuses on the individual. Ovllá is a fictional story, but everything that happens in it has happened to someone on both the Finnish, the Swedish, the Norwegian and the Russian side of p at some point.
The production features Sámi artists as guest designers: Geir Tore Holm as set designer, Helmi Hagelin/Bihtošoabbá Helme as costume designer, and Øystein Heitmann as lighting designer. The sound design is by Jari Niemi from Oulu Theatre. Emil Kárlsen will be taking on the lead role.
Performance languages are Northern Sámi and Finnish. There will be Finnish, Northern Sámi and English subtitles. The opera is produced in collaboration with Oulu Sinfonia, the Sámi National Theatre Beaivváš, and Oulu2026.
Oulu is the European Capital of Culture for the year 2026. Ovllá is part of the Oulu2026 cultural programme and cultural climate change.
Cecilia Damström & Juho-Sire/Siri Broch Johansen & Emil Kárlsen: Ovllá Opera Radio Broadcast, Oulu Theatre and Sámi National Theatre with Oulu Sinfonia conducted by Rumon Gamba – Listen on Yle Areena
Cecilia Damström & Juho-Sire/Siri Broch Johansen & Emil Kárlsen: Ovllá Opera Trailer, Oulu Theatre and Sámi National Theatre with Oulu Sinfonia conducted by Rumon Gamba – Listen on Youtube
Reviews
The Most Beautiful Music Cecilia Damström Has Ever Written
Our Land is brought into disrepute in the first opera in Northern Sámi
Both Finlandia and The Finnish National Anthem are brought into disrepute as Cecilia Damström exposes the cracks in Finland’s self-image in the world’s first full-length opera in Northern Sámi.
The programme booklet carries a warning for discriminatory and racist content as the world’s first full-evening opera in Northern Sámi opens at Oulu City Theatre. It is a unique evening. Alongside the inauguration of Oulu’s European Capital of Culture year, Finland takes an important step towards reckoning with an aspect of its problematic past and present.
The material might have resulted in a spoken theatre piece, but it was just as well that it became an opera, where several Sámi soloists were given space to draw directly from their own culture.
Composer Cecilia Damström (b. 1988) has said in interviews that her greatest shock was the extent of the racism and discrimination Sámi people have endured and continue to endure. To compose an important narrative for several soloists, choir, and orchestra was for her a long-standing dream fulfilled.
For a Helsinki-born composer to write a work about the oppression of an Indigenous people is nevertheless akin to walking on a minefield. It is of little help to invoke one’s own minority identity as a Finland-Swede. Despite good intentions, things can easily go wrong.
Fortunately, Damström has worked intensively to create the work together with Sámi artists. The librettists and soloists are Sámi; Northern Sámi is spoken on stage; and translations into Finnish, English, and other Sámi languages are provided via a surtitling app. The story is explicitly written from a minority perspective.
The libretto by the Norwegian Sámi singer, writer, and performing artist Juho-Sire (Siri Broch Johansen) is direct and unambiguous. It tells of a boy growing up within his Indigenous culture, confronting the prejudices of the majority, becoming assimilated, and relinquishing his language and culture—until the time comes to raise the next generation.
Rather than pointing fingers or casting blame, Juho-Sire’s text is empathetic towards all involved. They are children of their time and products of their cultures. Harmful behaviour appears more often as a result of ignorance and misunderstanding than of outright malice. This in itself offers hope that the future may be brighter.
Ovllá himself (Emil Kárlsen) does not possess the strongest voice for an operatic stage, but he feels genuine as a character—initially lost, until he finds his way home again. Particularly affecting is the encounter with his mother (Sara Margrethe Oskal) on her deathbed. At first, she does not respond when he addresses her in the wrong language.
Ovllá’s father (Ánndaris / Anders Rimpi) is a classic patriarch, a somewhat frightening figure who lives from and with nature and grumbles bitterly that the younger generation can no longer do anything properly. He functions as a conscience for others, yet seems incapable of asking what he himself might have done differently.
Emil Kárlsen has composed the joiks performed during the evening, and among these I am particularly struck by those sung by Gova Niko / Niko Valkeapää in the role of the gatekeeper Lemet. His tone production is suitably rough, and the singing carries far.
Ovllá’s wife Anna (Ánne Máddji Heatta) offers the most beautiful singing of the evening. She elicits spontaneous applause for the love duet with Kárlsen.
The three boisterous boys (Aki Saarela, Ville Hummastenniemi, Martin Iivarinen) sing splendidly throughout.
Sanna Iljin, as the boarding school headmistress, is a Queen-of-the-Night-like figure—admittedly more lyrical, but equally vocally impressive and frightening in appearance. The child actors play important roles in portraying the cycle of life.
Damström herself takes a significant step back, to the extent that during the curtain calls she is scarcely given the opportunity to receive the praise she so richly deserves. Instead, she steps into line and allows the soloists to remain in the spotlight. But:
Damström deserves the highest possible commendation for a work that must be the most beautiful she has ever written. The fundamental atmosphere remains, in a manner typical of her, strongly narrative and forward-driving, with an immediate address to the listener. At the same time, she continually strings more strings upon her lyre, lending the music an increased degree of complexity. From the orchestral works ICE and Permafrost she draws an ice motif that feels perfectly suited to a story set in Arctic conditions.
The most beautiful moments occur when the orchestra steps back and allows generous space for the Norwegian Sámi singer, composer, physician, and footballer Ánne Máddji Heatta’s exceptionally beautiful, serene, and carrying singing voice.
At the same time, Damström is able to reveal weaknesses and fractures. Both Finlandia and Our Land are embarrassingly brought into disrepute as nationalist costumed violence is examined at the seams. The miners, for their part, are given a rousing march reminiscent of Shostakovich’s Leningrad Symphony.
It is no coincidence that she bears the name of music’s patron saint, Cecilia.
The staging—with all that it encompasses in terms of direction, choreography, set design, costumes, lighting, sound, hair, and make-up—feels exemplary in its unity and balance. Visually, the production clearly evokes the 1970s, with orange as the dominant colour, recurring in cars, tents, and clothing.
Although the story is sorrowful, it avoids indulging in violence and oppression. The Finnish theatrical original sin—where every play must culminate in a Great Reckoning of heightened emotions and excessive shouting—is likewise avoided.
Wilhelm Kvist, Hufvudstadsbladet 20.1.2026
Ovllá Reopens Old Wounds
The opera Ovllá tells the story of the forced assimilation experienced by the Sámi people. Children were sent far from their homes to Finnish-language schools and boarding institutions, where their Sámi roots and mother tongue were systematically suppressed.
Under Heta Haanperä’s sensitive and uncompromising direction, the opera unfolds as an unvarnished yet deeply moving narrative. It balances the collective power of large ensemble scenes with the intimacy of personal relationships. The stage imagery alternates between realism and moments of striking, almost painterly beauty. In the assured hands of conductor Rumon Gamba, the work coheres with remarkable clarity and emotional force.
The Sámi cause has lost none of its urgency — quite the opposite. It has now found a resonant voice within music theatre as well. Recently, Opera Box presented the children’s opera Giellavealgu at the Alexander Theatre, and next year Outi Tarkiainen’s Yön päivä will receive its world premiere. To revisit Sámi history and identity through opera is not only timely, but profoundly meaningful.
Ovllá portrays with stark honesty how the forced Finnicisation of Sámi children can result in lifelong trauma and a persistent sense of alienation — even when one desperately seeks to belong, as Ovllá does by denying his own roots. A particularly powerful moment arises in the choral scene in which young Piera, newly arrived at the boarding school, becomes the target of collective ridicule because of his name — a moment that crystallises cruelty into a shared social act.
In northern Finland, Sámi and Finnish identities continue to negotiate space and balance. In Ovllá, Cecilia Damström’s music — cool and glacial in its sonorities — does not clash with Emil Kárlsen’s beautifully composed, deeply heartfelt joiks. Rather, the two worlds intertwine harmoniously. Damström’s score does not retreat in the presence of joik; instead, it sustains itself like a resonant pedal point beneath them, offering a sonic foundation while allowing the joiks their freedom — even room for improvisatory expression.
Extended pedal tones form a central structural element of the score, alongside fifth and fourth intervals that establish a dark, earthy resonance from the very opening bars. These materials underpin the musical language of many scenes. At moments such as Ovllá’s (Emil Kárlsen) night out with his Finnish friends at a Sámi festival, the music also introduces folk-like Finnish themes and harmonies. The trio of friends sings with splendid blend and clarity.
The arias and duets shared by Ovllá and his beloved Anna (Ánne Máddji Heatta) are exquisitely shaped. Their melodic lines echo joik-like contours, which are immediately mirrored by orchestral instruments — flute and piccolo in Anna’s case — as if reverberating from beyond the fells. Ovllá’s musical voice is anchored by the clarinet, while the bassoon shadows the lines of Anna’s father, Lemeti (Niko Valkeapää).
With great skill, the opera moves along multiple dramaturgical paths: on the one hand, Ovllá and Anna’s life together unfolds in the intimate language of chamber opera; on the other, the boarding school scenes rise into full-scale opera, vividly sketching the deep inequalities imposed upon the children. Sanna Iljin’s headmistress is a fearsome presence — a brilliantly sung, ice-hard figure clad in Queen-of-the-Night splendour — while Martin Iivarinen’s teacher stands like a stone monument, formidable both vocally and dramatically.
Although the full power of the large orchestra is used sparingly, when it does erupt — often joined by the chorus — the music acquires a hypnotic, hammering force. The school choir’s rendition of Finlandia and the fleeting appearance of Maamme during the teacher’s cold monologues underscore the rigid, exclusionary ideal of Finnishness, reinforced by conventionally rigid triadic harmonies.
The joiks themselves act as compelling links within the opera’s dramatic chain. Their emotional weight deepens further when Ovllá and Anna part, as Anna returns to Kautokeino with their daughter. Even the once crystalline music fractures.
Ovllá is left alone to reckon with his life. The circle closes in a final, quietly devastating scene: as he visits his elderly mother in the hospital ward, she sings the very same joik with which she once sent young Ovllá on his journey to boarding school. Like Sara Margrethe Oskal, all of Ovllá’s joikers leave a profound impression — the message of joik is timeless, resonating far beyond words.
Tuulikki Närhinsalo, Rondo 18.1.2026
Groundbreaking Reflections on Sámi Identity
Emil Kárlsen makes a powerful impression in a Norwegian–Finnish opera […]
Sámi culture is very much in the spotlight at present, often in the most unexpected places. At the end of last year, the Royal Swedish Opera presented Jordens hjärta, the first opera ever performed in Northern Sámi. Now the bar is raised yet another notch in Oulu, northern Finland.
In Ovllá, a collaboration between Oulu Theatre and the Sámi National Theatre Beaivváš, joik functions as a central vocal element throughout an entire evening-length opera. Whereas Jordens hjärta presented a Sámi creation myth, Ovllá offers a far more grounded and contemporary narrative: the story of a young Finnish man grappling with his Sámi identity.
The result is a production that largely succeeds in its ambition to present itself as a genuinely Sámi opera, both in form and in substance.
Emil at the centre
Ovllá ventures into territory rarely explored on the operatic stage. The libretto is written by Juho-Sire / Siri Broch Johansen, who recently received both a Hedda nomination and the Ibsen Prize for the play Per Hansen – en trofast mann. The opera is sung in Finnish and Northern Sámi, with additional passages in Norwegian and Swedish. Subtitles are provided in English and Finnish, as well as in Northern Sámi, Skolt Sámi, and Inari Sámi.
At the centre of the stage, in the title role, stands Emil Kárlsen from Storfjord in Troms — an award-winning artist, actor, and singer whose reputation is rapidly growing both within and beyond the Nordic countries. Kárlsen has shaped many of the opera’s vocal passages in close collaboration with Cecilia Damström, currently one of the most discussed contemporary Finnish composers of the younger generation. […]
A wide musical spectrum
Musically, Ovllá turns the tension between Sámi culture and majority culture into a fundamental dramaturgical principle. This contrast is embedded directly into the musical apparatus, which places joikers on stage alongside a full symphony orchestra — Oulu Sinfonia — in the pit.
Ovllá’s gradual return to his Sámi roots is mirrored in his vocal expression, which increasingly adopts the qualities of joik. This has been made possible through the close collaboration between singer Emil Kárlsen and composer Cecilia Damström, with Kárlsen composing the majority of the vocal material for the Sámi roles.
The musical range of Ovllá is remarkably broad, stretching from stripped-down, intimate joik to full operatic force in the dramatic scenes depicting Ovllá’s traumatic boarding school memories.
Damström’s expressive range is impressive. […]
Successful staging and strong soloists
Visually, Ovllá has much to offer. Director Heta Haanperä and her team deftly combine simple yet vivid scenographic elements with realistic costumes.
Emil Kárlsen may be familiar to many Norwegian viewers from his role as Jussi in the Disney+ series Koke bjørn. Here, he delivers a compelling stage performance as Ovllá — a role that demands near-constant presence throughout the opera. His sensitive vocal approach captures many of the inner conflicts that define the character.
Equally beautiful is Ánne Máddji Heatta’s singing in the role of Ánná. The duet between Ovllá and Ánná in the first act stands out as a highlight. Worthy of special mention is also the young bass Martin Iivarinen, whose performance as the boarding school teacher is marked by impressive power and vocal richness.
From a Kiruna truck to the world
Juho-Sire / Siri Broch Johansen’s nuanced libretto makes Ovllá an opera with which audiences in the north are likely to strongly identify, while offering southern audiences insight into a reality many know little about.
I must admit I never imagined I would witness a tribute to a Kiruna mining truck from an opera stage. Yet this is just one of many elements that feel refreshing and innovative in Ovllá — a work that one hopes will, in time, also find its way to Norwegian audiences.
Eystein Sandvik, NRK 21.1.2026
Yle Sápmi Oddasat: Ovllá Opera – Listen on Yle Areena
The opera Ovllá stirred a wide range of emotions in audiences – viewers were left reflecting on what it feels like when one no longer masters Sámi life
Ovllá is Finland’s first full-length opera in Northern Sámi. Audiences were moved, but the opera also stirred difficult emotions.
Ovllá was performed for the first time last weekend as part of the opening events of Oulu 2026, the European Capital of Culture. The opera is Finland’s first full-length work in Northern Sámi and tells a story about the era of boarding schools.
People came to see Ovllá from across Sápmi. One of them was Anni-Siiri Länsman. She says the opera itself was very special, as she is not used to opera that also includes joik.
“I understood the story it tells, as well as the staging and the costumes. It was a very special experience.”
Länsman has lived in Oulu for more than 20 years, but she remembers clearly how she herself had to leave home for a boarding school at the age of seven. She spent 12 years there. What affected her most in the opera was the depiction of being forced to leave home and parents behind.
“A child should be with their parents. Now, when I think of my own children — if I had had to send them away at the age of seven and only see them at Christmas, and if that had continued — it would have been absolutely devastating.”
The premiere also attracted Sámi audiences from Norway
Many of the performers in the opera were Sámi from Norway, and many audience members had also travelled from Norway.
The President of the Norwegian Sámi Parliament, Silje Karine Muotka, was impressed by the skilled performers. In her view, the artistic level was high.
“Sámi people and Sámi artists are developing and finding new ways to communicate the valuable content we possess. And they show the world that Sámi culture also belongs on major stages,” Muotka says.
Muotka considers the opera highly topical. In her view, it addresses identity, assimilation, and painful childhood memories, and also shows how these experiences can continue to affect people far into the future.
Similar thoughts were expressed by the Chair of the Norwegian Sámi Parliament’s plenary session, Sandra Márjá West. In her view, the opera presents many Sámi stories that may be unfamiliar to many, for example those connected to boarding school life.
West believes that many viewers recognised the feeling of no longer being able to live Sámi life fully. That feeling was also the strongest one for her.
“You no longer master what you should master. In the Norwegian school system you learn certain things and certain values, but Sámi life has other values that are important.”
The opera teaches Sámi history
Elena Mindru-Turunen, Executive Director of the Oulu Music Festival, says the opera gave her many thought-provoking reflections on Sámi culture and history.
“Where people have ended up, and where they have had to abandon or hide their roots. It is encouraging to see that today Sámi people are proud of their culture. It is important to dare to be proud of one’s own culture.”
Mindru-Turunen believes it is important to be aware of Sámi history. Through this opera, she herself was also able to become more closely acquainted with Sámi culture.
Piibe Aikio, Yle Sápmi 19.1.2026
Ovllá Is a Surprising and Distinctive Opera – Finlandia Resounds as a Symbol of the Oppressors
When it was announced that the programme of Oulu’s European Capital of Culture year would include a Sámi opera, the initial reaction was one of mild astonishment. Oulu and Sámi culture are not, in everyday thinking, commonly associated with one another.
Along the way, however, it has become clear that according to official statistics from Statistics Finland, Oulu is in fact the largest Sámi municipality in Finland. There are, therefore, more than sufficient grounds for bringing Sámi perspectives to the fore.
The premiere — and world premiere — of the opera Ovllá, composed by Cecilia Damström to a libretto by Juho-Sire / Siri Broch Johansen, took place on Friday on the main stage of Oulu Theatre as part of the opening festival of the Capital of Culture year.
As an opera, Ovllá is a genuinely positive surprise — and refreshingly unlike expectations.
Damström’s music, chameleon-like in its movement from one style to another, combined with the joiks composed by Emil Kárlsen, is far removed from what one might conventionally expect of contemporary opera. The very presence of joik lends the score an unmistakably distinctive and almost magical atmosphere, while Damström’s musical language — shifting between traditional tonality and the expressive devices of modern music — powerfully reinforces the dramatic contrasts unfolding on stage.
Musically, one of the most striking and thought-provoking moments occurs when Jean Sibelius’s Finlandia hymn resounds within a narrative that addresses Finnish colonialism and the oppression of minorities — here transformed into a symbol of the oppressors themselves.
A bold yet dramaturgically astute decision was to reserve the more overtly modern operatic effects for Ovllá’s nightmarish memories of his boarding school experiences. Damström’s chamber-like restraint in orchestration proves highly effective, particularly in the theatre’s acoustically challenging environment.
The score, realised with sensitivity and controlled sonic power, is expertly balanced. The orchestral writing offers the singers firm and reliable support while maintaining clarity and transparency throughout.
As an opera, Ovllá is clearly centred on its two protagonists. Emil Kárlsen’s Ovllá and Ánne Máddji Heatta’s Ánná remain at the heart of both the drama and the audience’s attention throughout. This versatile and compelling central pair possesses ample stage presence and emotional range to meet the work’s demanding requirements.
Sanna Iljin and Martin Iivarinen bring a chilling, almost horror-film quality to their roles as the headmistress and teacher in Ovllá’s nightmares, their dramatic operatic voices forming a striking musical counterweight to the natural, elemental quality of the joiks. There is an almost playful irony in the fact that modern art music here comes to represent the so-called “dark side”.
Niko Valkeapää, Anders Rimpi and Sara Margrethe Oskal deliver smaller yet narratively crucial roles — as Ánná’s father and Ovllá’s parents — with touching sincerity.
In staging a story of such weight, the guiding principle seems to be “less is more”. Heta Haanperä’s direction, Geir Tore Holm’s set design, and Helmi Hagelin’s costumes are all refreshingly unadorned in the most positive sense.
Everything on stage feels precisely right, yet nothing distracts from the music or the libretto’s powerful message. One particularly inspired scenic detail is the oversized coffee pot which, when turned, transforms into Ánná’s home.
Under Rumon Gamba’s baton, the Oulu Symphony Orchestra once again delivers dependable and assured playing in the theatre’s demanding conditions.
As an experience, the Capital of Culture opera can be warmly recommended even to those for whom the very thought of contemporary opera may usually provoke scepticism or discomfort. Ovllá succeeds not only as a work of artistic integrity, but as a profoundly engaging and accessible piece of music theatre.
Hannu Hirvelä, Kaleva / Lapin Kansa / Siikajokilaakso 18.1.2026
Ovllá shows what happened when the Sámi were forcibly assimilated
In recent years, a growing number of operatic works have brought long-overdue attention and appreciation to Sámi culture. Among the most significant of these is Ovllá, the opera that opened Oulu’s year as European Capital of Culture.
Earlier the same week saw the premiere of the children’s opera Giellavealgu in Helsinki, while Stockholm’s Royal Swedish Opera presented Eatnama Váibmu late last year. Looking ahead, Outi Tarkiainen’s Yön päivä will receive its German premiere in January 2027. Together, these works form a powerful artistic movement that places Sámi voices firmly at the centre of contemporary opera.
In Finland, the final report of the Sámi Truth and Reconciliation Commission, published in December 2025, drew national attention to decades of injustices suffered by the Sámi people, including the assimilation policies enforced through boarding schools. Ovllá engages with this history in a sensitive and profoundly human way.
From the opening scene, the opera establishes its emotional core: a father leaves the young Ovllá in an unfamiliar place — a boarding school. This early rupture becomes a defining moment, echoing throughout the protagonist’s later life and shaping the emotional landscape of the drama.
Through Ovllá’s personal journey and the psychological barriers that arise from his experiences, librettist Juho-Sire / Siri Broch Johansen paints a broader portrait of the Sámi people’s recent past. Ovllá (performed with quiet intensity by Emil Kárlsen) attempts to distance himself from his Sámi roots, having been conditioned to do so within the boarding school system.
This internal conflict strains his ties to his family and ultimately fractures his relationship with Ánná (Ánne Máddji Heatta). The emotional restraint that defines Ovllá’s character becomes both a dramatic force and a poignant reflection of historical trauma.
Composer Cecilia Damström creates a compelling musical duality between Finnish and Sámi identities. Finnish characters are given strong, recognisably traditional orchestral material, while Sámi musical expression is rooted in joiks composed by Emil Kárlsen, framed by Damström’s delicately restrained orchestral writing.
Both musical worlds are richly evocative. In the boarding school scenes, the Finnish musical language leans towards tonality, occasionally alluding to Sibelius’s Finlandia. The Finnish roles are sung by accomplished opera singers, with particularly striking performances from bass Martin Iivarinen as the teacher and soprano Sanna Iljin as the headmistress.
The Sámi joiks, by contrast, illuminate the score with a subtler, deeply affecting radiance. Ánne Máddji Heatta, Niko Valkeapää, and Sara Margarethe Oskal deliver moving performances as Ánná, her father Lemeti, and Ovllá’s mother, allowing Sámi vocal tradition to resonate at the emotional heart of the work.
Notably, Ovllá’s character does not sing joik himself — a dramaturgical choice that powerfully underscores his estrangement from his heritage. Though electronic amplification is used to balance the sound world, this contrast in vocal expression mirrors the opera’s central themes of identity and power.
In this work, joiks function much like arias in the operatic tradition: moments of concentrated emotional truth. Narrative progression is carried through more conventional melodic writing, offering space for reflection and continuity.
Alongside these two musical spheres, a third layer emerges through Damström’s modernist orchestral language, familiar from her earlier works. This serves as a reflective narrative voice, observing events from a broader perspective and illuminating Ovllá’s inner turmoil. Under Rumon Gamba’s assured leadership, the Oulu Symphony Orchestra delivers a richly nuanced and expressive performance.
Geir Tore Holm’s set design employs bold, pared-down visual imagery. A towering coffee pot, for instance, becomes a memorable symbol during Ovllá’s visit to Ánná’s home in Kautokeino, grounding the drama in both intimacy and cultural specificity. This visual clarity allows director Heta Haanperä’s staging to unfold with increasing intensity, culminating in a deeply moving final scene that lingers long after the curtain falls.
Samuli Tiikkaja, Helsingin Sanomat 18.1.2026
Tears still fell in the cloakroom: Ovllá at Oulu Theatre is an experience not to be missed
The Sámi opera Ovllá explores how forced Finnicisation taught Sámi children to be ashamed of their roots.
Oulu Theatre’s Sámi opera Ovllá tells of a time when Sámi people were subjected to systematic oppression through forced Finnicisation. Children placed in boarding schools were, among other things, forbidden to speak their own language. Watching the work is, at times, deeply uncomfortable—as it should be. It is admirable how art can convey knowledge of the darker chapters of our national history, which the Sámi Truth and Reconciliation Commission addressed in its report published last December.
Opera as an art form still provokes prejudice in many quarters. I would not count myself among its most ardent devotees, yet this is a production I can warmly recommend even to those who normally shy away from opera. Ánne Máddji Heatta’s joiks, sung in the role of Ovllá’s beloved Ánná, resonate with haunting beauty. Despite the painful subject matter, the narrative is remarkably easy to follow. The smartphone subtitle app is indispensable for understanding the dialogue in Finnish and Northern Sámi.
Premiered in mid-January, this Sámi opera is one of the major early highlights of Oulu’s year as European Capital of Culture. Yle will broadcast the opera on the radio on 7 February, but it is well worth seeing in the theatre as well, not least because of its striking visual impact. The performances linger in the soul.
The boarding school’s headmistress is, almost to the point of dark comedy, reminiscent of a traditional operatic diva, complete with towering coiffure. Emil Kárlsen’s voice, in the title role, is light and fragile—entirely fitting for an Ovllá who is adrift in his own identity.
Among the most memorable scenes are the miners’ march, the grilling of the prospective son-in-law over a coffee pot, and the return to the rocking motion of the childhood river boat. After the final scene, tears stream down the audience’s faces—and they are not easily dried, even in the cloakroom.
Suvi Jylhänlehto, Maaseudun Tulevaisuus 2.2.2026
The Sámi opera Ovllá brings Finland’s history of racism into sharp focus
Composed by Cecilia Damström and directed by Heta Haanperä, Ovllá recounts—truthfully and without embellishment—the coming-of-age of a Sámi boy, Ovllá, from a small schoolchild to an adult man and father. Music that is at times piercingly icy, at times darkly and powerfully driven, alternates naturally with joik passages performed by Sámi singers. The British chief conductor of the Oulu Symphony Orchestra, Rumon Gamba, keeps the whole magnificently under control; the orchestra plays superbly, with colour and alert responsiveness. The stage images are at times realistic, at times composed like striking works of visual art.
In Ovllá, Damström’s glacial, ice-bright musical language—growing in the drama’s climactic moments into a forcefully driving surge—does not compete with the joiks composed by Ovllá’s performer, Emil Kárlsen. Instead, these elements coexist harmoniously, interweaving and layering with one another.
The songs and duets of Ovllá and his beloved Anna (Ánne Máddji Heatta) are deeply beautiful.
The joiks sung by Ovllá’s and Anna’s parents form powerful links in the chain of the opera’s events. A particularly poignant addition is the couple’s separation, when Anna moves with their daughter from Ovllá in Alta, Norway, to Kautokeino, a Sámi community. When the dispute over the child’s language leads to the family’s rupture, even the ice-clear music begins to fracture.
Like Sara Margrethe Oskal, all of Ovllá’s joikers make a profound impression with their artistry. This is no joik-pop entertainment, but deeply affecting Sámi tradition at its most authentic. The message of the joik is timeless.
Tuulikki Närhinsalo, Verde 26.1.2026
Ovllá – Between two worlds
Ovllá is a significant work that addresses Sámi oppression and Finnish assimilation policy from a Sámi perspective and is created largely by Sámi artists. The opera combines the expressive means of Western opera with traditional joik, and the Sámi language is heard in performance. The starting point itself challenges opera’s traditional position as a majority-culture art form.
The piece moves consciously along the boundaries between opera, musical, and music theatre. This does not feel accidental but like a deliberate solution: the blending of genres mirrors the meeting and collision of cultures. There are few traditional grand arias or duets; instead, one hears joik and a liminal mode of expression. Choral scenes bring operatic force, particularly in traumatic school memories, where Finnish national imagery turns critical—even oppressive.
The music is shared between composer Cecilia Damström and the principal performer Emil Kárlsen. Damström’s orchestral music is carefully constructed and at times experimental, yet avoids any emphasis on “exoticism”. Kárlsen’s joiks create a powerful emotional core. Joik appears as authentic expression that connects person, nature, and past. The parallel presence of these two musical worlds becomes one of the work’s central tensions.
The libretto (Juho-Sire / Siri Broch Johansen) builds a ten-scene story about identity, cultural pressure, and family relationships. Direction and design support the themes intelligently: the stage shifts flexibly between times and worlds. Visual choices—such as dismantling the “home” as the relationship breaks—make internal conflicts tangible.
The framing is cyclical: the mother’s joik at both beginning and end underscores roots and continuity. Identity is not presented as an isolated personal choice, but as a relationship to family, language, and land.
The review also expands to reception and the problem of “the gaze”. A majority-culture spectator is compelled to question their own position. The work offers no easy answers and does not dissolve into vague universality; instead, it keeps alive questions of belonging, difference, and connection.
Overall, Ovllá is an artistically ambitious and culturally important work. It challenges operatic tradition from within and asks whether a majority-culture art form can also serve as a tool for critically examining the majority culture’s own history—without the original experience being absorbed into the very power structure the work seeks to dismantle.
Jari Hoffrén, JälkiKAIKUJA korvaKÄYTÄVILTÄ, 23.2.2026
Interviews and articles
Joik composer and main role Emil Kárlsen talking (in Northern Sami) about the opera Ovllá – Listen on Youtube
Director Heta Haanperä talking (in Finnish) about the opera Ovllá – Listen on Youtube
Interview on the Finnish Radio in Kulttuuriykkönen of Cecilia Damström & Juho-Sire/Siri Broch Johansen and composer Sebastian Fagerlund, by Pietari Kylmälä – Listen on Yle Areena
English Articles:
Operawire: Cecilia Damström’s ‘Ovllá’ to Make World Premiere in Oulu
Oulu2026: A Unique World Premiere in Oulu – Ovllá Brings Silenced Stories to Life
Finnish Articles:
Voima: Ovllá-ooppera on vaikuttava teos saamelaisten syvästä haavasta
Kulttuuritoimitus: Oulussa ensi-iltansa saava Ovllá on ensimmäinen Suomessa kantaesitettävä saamenkielinen ooppera
Rondo: Luonnon, joikujen ja valtarakenteiden peili
Kaleva: Tällä viikolla ensi-iltansa saavansa Ovllá on koettavissa kaikilla aisteilla – saamelaistähdet kertovat, miksi teos on poikkeuksellinen elämys
Kaleva: Ovllá-ooppera toi kulttuurivaikuttajia Ouluun
Lapin Kansa: Oulun teatterin Ovllá-oopperan solistit ovat saamelaistähtiä
Kaleva: Saamelaisooppera Ovllá antaa äänen vaietuille tarinoille – “Yhteissoitto on jotain niin voimallisen kaunista, että liikutun joka kerta”
Davvisámegiella:
Yle Sápmi: Ovllá-opera čalmmustahttá ásodatáiggi – sámeoperas gullo juoigan- ja lávlunnuohta seaguhus
NRK Sápmi: Kárlsen váldorollas Suoma vuosttaš operas davvisámegillii
Yle Sápmi: Sámeopera Ovlá náitá oktii opera ja luođi – bihttá čájehuvvo Oulu teáhteris jagi geažes
Swedish Articles:
Gehrmans Musikförlag: NY OPERA – Jojk och iskristaller i Ovllà av Cecilia Damström
Danish Articles:
Klassisk Bureau: Den første helaftensopera på samisk får verdenspremiere i Finland
Performances
2026 January 16th World Premiere by Oulu City Theatre and Oulu Sinfonia – More info
2026 January 17th second performance by Oulu City Theatre and Oulu Sinfonia – More info
2026 January 20th third performance by Oulu City Theatre and Oulu Sinfonia – More info
2026 January 21st fourth performance by Oulu City Theatre and Oulu Sinfonia – More info
2026 January 23rd fifth performance by Oulu City Theatre and Oulu Sinfonia – More info
2026 January 24th sixth performance by Oulu City Theatre and Oulu Sinfonia – More info
2026 January 28th seventh performance by Oulu City Theatre and Oulu Sinfonia – More info
2026 January 30th eight performance by Oulu City Theatre and Oulu Sinfonia – More info
2026 January 31st ninth performance by Oulu City Theatre and Oulu Sinfonia – More info
2026 February 4th tenth performance by Oulu City Theatre and Oulu Sinfonia – More info
2026 February 5th eleventh performance by Oulu City Theatre and Oulu Sinfonia – More info
2026 February 6th twelfth performance by Oulu City Theatre and Oulu Sinfonia – More info
2026 February 7th thirteenth performance by Oulu City Theatre and Oulu Sinfonia – More info
2026 February 11th fourteenth performance by Oulu City Theatre and Oulu Sinfonia – More info
2026 February 13th fifteenth performance by Oulu City Theatre and Oulu Sinfonia – More info
2026 February 14th sixteenth performance by Oulu City Theatre and Oulu Sinfonia – More info
2026 February 20th seventeenth performance by Oulu City Theatre and Oulu Sinfonia – More info
2026 February 21st eightteenth performance by Oulu City Theatre and Oulu Sinfonia – More info
2026 February 27th nineteenth performance by Oulu City Theatre and Oulu Sinfonia – More info
2026 February 28th twentieth performance by Oulu City Theatre and Oulu Sinfonia – More info
Broadcast
2026 February 7th to June 7th available on Yle Areena – More info