Aino is an opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

 by Erkki Melartin

Erkki Melartin

Erkki Melartin was a Finnish composer and pupil of Martin Wegelius from 1892-99 in Helsinki, and Robert Fuchs from 1899-1901 in Vienna. He shares identical birth and death years with the composer Maurice Ravel....

, composed in 1912 to a libretto

Libretto

A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...

 by Jalmari Finne. The opera is based on the Kalevala

Kalevala

The Kalevala is a 19th century work of epic poetry compiled by Elias Lönnrot from Finnish and Karelian oral folklore and mythology.It is regarded as the national epic of Finland and is one of the most significant works of Finnish literature...

, more specifically on the character of Aino

Aino (mythology)

Aino is a figure in the Finnish national epic Kalevala. It relates that she was the beautiful sister of Joukahainen. Her brother, having lost a singing contest to the storied Väinämöinen, promised Aino's "hands and feet" in marriage if Väinämöinen would save him from drowning in the swamp into...

. Its music shows the influence of Richard Wagner

Richard Wagner

Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...

.

Synopsis

Väinö, a godly figure and the son of Luonnotar, wants to taste the pleasures of mortals. He does so with Aino who personifies nature. Väinö meets Aino and they agree to marry. Aino's brother Jouko opposes the match and challenges Väinö to a singing match which he loses. The second act traces the preparations for the wedding and the ceremony itself. Väinö fashions a kantele, a musical instrument, from a birch tree. Aino disappears and in the final ecstatic monologue dives into the sea against the aural tapestry of a chorus of water nymphs.