NEW OPERA – Yojk and ice crystals in Ovllà by Cecilia Damström
For the Finnish Capital of Culture year 2026, Cecilia Damström has composed an opera that weaves together joik with a modernist ice theme. JUho-Sire/Siri Broch Johansen's libretto depicts the experience of being forced to forget one's language and origins – and gradually becoming ashamed of them. The contemporary history of the Sami people is marked by wounds and losses, but from these experiences also grows something resilient, vibrant and unexpectedly beautiful.
THREE QUESTIONS FOR CECILIA DAMSTRÖM
How did you work with the meeting between joik and your personal musical language?
Joik is the oldest living musical tradition in all of Europe. It has been a great honour to collaborate with Emil Kárlsen by notating and orchestrating his new joiks, written specifically for this opera. I chose to orchestrate the joiks very sparingly, in order to leave as much freedom as possible to the soloists. These joiks by Kárlsen, together with an “ice theme” that I composed, formed the two main starting points for the entire opera.
The ice theme, which I have previously used in my orchestral works ICE and Permafrost, consists of symmetrical hexachords – that is, six tones that are all equally spaced intervallically. This symmetry reflects the fact that both snow and ice, even at the molecular level, are based on hexagonal forms. These chords “creep in,” freeze into clusters, and thaw again, in the same way that water freezes and melts. Because the ice theme is timbrally complex and lacks clear rhythms, while joik is characterised by highly complex and shifting rhythms, together they form a musical whole that feels alive and organic – difficult to grasp or confine, much like nature itself.
In this opera, Finland is treated primarily as an institution, with strict and unforgiving frameworks. This rigidity and harshness inherent in institutions can also be heard in the music, through march-like rhythms and brass sonorities that recall military bands.
For the listener, I would describe the instrumental “ice theme” as modernist, while all sections involving the singers contain melodies that one can carry with them long after leaving the performance.
Tell us about your first encounter with Sámi culture.
As part of this project, I took an introductory course in North Sámi at the University of Helsinki Summer University in 2024. I can warmly recommend this course to anyone interested in the Sámi language and culture. It was fascinating to learn the basics of the language, which, despite some grammatical similarities to Finnish, is very different from both Finnish and Swedish – and an extremely challenging language with countless nuances.
Sámi culture is deeply connected to nature, and I have learned a great deal through my collaborators on this opera, as well as through reading Sámi literature (in translation). The greatest shock for me during this project has been realising the extent of the racism and discrimination that the Sámi people have experienced – and continue to experience today.
Your works often engage with pressing social issues. What has been most important to you in the work on Ovllá?
Imperialism – the idea that one culture or nation has priority over others – is among the most dangerous forces I know. Imperialism and patriarchy are deeply intertwined, and they continue to cause suffering for millions of people today. Sámi culture has been violated and suppressed, but I hope that this can change.
The opera Ovllá forms part of Finland’s public apology for the way the Sámi people have been treated. Everything about this opera has felt important: being able to notate Emil Kárlsen’s joiks so that they are documented for the future; writing an opera in Sámi, thereby preserving Sámi history and language in musical notation; and, together with Juho-Sire/Siri Broch Johansen, contributing to the telling of a story about how the trauma of oppression can have profound consequences in people’s lives.
It has been an immense honour to take part in transforming a Sámi story into music.