Ahead of the launch of its full program on 4 November, Adelaide Festival has announced its first three productions for 2025.

They include its operatic centrepiece, Kaija Saariaho’s Innocence directed by Simon Stone; the world premiere of Daniel Riley’s A Quiet Language, celebrating Australian Dance Theatre’s 60th anniversary; and the return of Pina Bausch’s Tanztheater Wuppertal, with the triple bill Club Amour.

Innocence at the Royal Opera House. Photo © Tristram Kenton

“The three productions in our avant-launch are each extraordinary artistic achievements,” newly appointed Artistic Director Brett Sheehy says, going on to thank former artistic directors Neil Armfield and Rachel Healy for securing Stone’s production of Innocence.

“I remember with awe Simon’s brilliant, genre-breaking realisation of The Cherry Orchard for my 2014 Melbourne Theatre Company season, before he began his stellar international career.”

Stone’s most recent work for the Adelaide Festival was his sell-out production of Thyestes in 2018, which Jo Litson described as “astonishing theatre” in her four-and-a-half-star review for Limelight.

His production of Saariaho’s psychological thriller Innocence – the composer’s last opera – had...