Writer
Jenna Viro
Request an interview via FNOB communications
Introduction
Jenna Viro is a writer for whom the boundaries of art forms are questions to be explored, categorization a means to create chimeras, and confusion a necessary movement for stirring thought. She is currently studying literary theory and aesthetics in the Master’s Programme in Art Studies at the University of Helsinki.
In Viro’s debut work Tuhkimoleikkaus (Cinderella Surgery, 2023), Charles Gounod’s opera Faust takes on a new form, as a surgeon cuts Magdalena and the Cinderella tale into the opera’s libretto. The work explores themes such as cosmetic surgery, performativity, and gender roles. The book was a nominee for the Helsingin Sanomat Prize for debut fiction and received an honorary mention for its originality and artistic ambition.
Viro is eager to see how, in the making of opera, music and stagecraft bring new dimensions to the text. Language can be melodic or rigid, dreamy or dark in meaning, expressive or pre-linguistic. Text that becomes flesh always brings the question of context and power to the surface in a new way. New elements can shift the tone of the text entirely — they may take it in an opposite direction, sharpen a particular perspective, or generate something unexpected. This project offers a chance to dive into those questions, into the ideas of fellow artists — and above all, into opera itself.”