The Sugar Factory 2026
New Short Opera Works x 4
Experience four new short opera works in one evening, all shaped by the present moment.
Mouthpiece, The Request, Emerge: Oops…life! and love is a rebellious bird explore the themes of trauma, class, technology and fantasy. Their rugged edges, black comedy and touching beauty come together in surprising and unsettling ways.
The Sugar Factory is a three-year programme financed by the Finnish Cultural Foundation. Its aim is to support the making of new opera in Finland. Composers, librettists and directors have combined their talents to create new, short works for Almi Hall at the Finnish National Opera.
Pricing
Ticket categories: Standard ticket prices are 10–50 euros depending on the seat. Ticket discounts do not apply to these performances.
Tickets and performances
Learn more about the works
Mouthpiece
After a visit to the dentists´, this poor kid´s life is never going to be the same again.
What begins in a sterile waiting room unravels into a wild journey through class divides, childhood fears, and the grotesque kingdom inside a sickly mouth.
Here, the Tooth Troll and the Tooth Fairy rule with equal menace and charm, blurring the line between fantasy and nightmare.
This opera blends dark humor, social commentary, and vivid imagination into a story about a child left to face consequences they never chose.
The Request
A young man commissions a sex robot replica of his childhood self.
A confrontation with the biases, assumptions, and moral values embedded in the machine. The Request explores memory, identity, and the cultural impact of a porn saturated world through a deeply human, unsettling encounter.
It speaks to a generation shaped by digital intimacy, mainstreamed pornography, and technologies that increasingly influence how we see ourselves and others.
At its core, it’s an opera about broken people struggling to survive, heal, and reclaim their humanity.
Emerge: Oops…life!
Emerge: Oops…life! is a dark comedy about three women who witness a violent incident on the street—an event that forces them to confront the traumas of their own lives. Suddenly, something small is enough to shatter a glass ceiling built over many years.
The piece offers a social commentary on womanhood from three viewpoints, combining episodic storytelling with time as a musical and theatrical element, and cinematic video material integrated into the live stage space.
Emerge: Oops…life! is not a story of survival. Rather, it offers observations on the inherent absurdity of life itself, and on how a lived life leaves its marks on us, both good and bad.
love is a rebellious bird
you’re gonna think about me when you’re dying
du wirst an mich denken wenn du am sterben bist
penserai a me quando morirai
tu penseras a moi quand tu morras
love is a rebellious bird is a ritual between carmen’s death and rebirth. A flock of black birds guides the audience through a haunted opera experience. The birds deliver messages between darkness and light and sing of love and death at the dawn of a new world.
Creative team
Mouthpiece
- Libretto
- Susi Siriya Orenius
- Music
- Stephen James Webb
- Director
- Pelzi Peltola
- Costume Design
- Hanna Vuorela, Pelzi Peltola
- Lighting Design
- Jukka Niiranen
- Conductor
- Kaapo Ijas
The Request
- Libretto
- Jenna Viro
- Music
- Eeva Kontu
- Director
- Bálint Barcsai
- Costume Design
- Erika Turunen
- Lighting Design
- Jukka Niiranen
- Conductor
- Kaapo Ijas
Emerge: Oops…life!
- Libretto
- Ilmari Nera
- Music
- Miika Hyytiäinen
- Director
- Anna-Maria Lipponen
- Costume Design
- Erika Turunen
- Lighting Design
- Jukka Niiranen
- Conductor
- Kaapo Ijas
love is a rebellious bird
- Libretto
- Carmen Baltzar
- Music
- Sid Hille
- Director
- Sara Melleri, Carmen Baltzar
- Costume Design
- Erika Turunen
- Lighting Design
- Jukka Niiranen
- Conductor
- Kaapo Ijas
cast
Mouthpiece
- Artist
- Isabella Shaw
The Request
Emerge: Oops…life!
love is a rebellious bird
- Artist
- Isabella Shaw
The performance concepts have been developed through a collaborative process within the artistic team. Performance-specific soloists are published in the performance listing.
Stage
What is the Sugar Factory?
the keys to an entertaining evening
Order refreshments
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Arriving at the Opera House
The Opera House is located by the Töölönlahti bay at Helsinginkatu 58. Learn the easiest ways to get here.
Accessible seats
You can purchase accessible tickets online or via our customer services. Learn more about accessibility at the Opera House.