Likes: 
Modern opera on DVD and Blu-ray
Lately I've started to explore the work of some living composers and Kaija Saariaho has quickly become a favorite of mine. A lot of her music is atonal, but often it's beautiful to my ears and it's always fascinating. Her "l'amour de loin" is arguably the most successful opera of the century so far. It was premiered at the Salsburg Festival in 2000 and since then there have been several new productions and many performances for enthusiastic audiences of the work.
Here's the wikipedia synopsis...
Setting: 12th century, in Aquitaine, Tripoli and at sea
Jaufré, having become weary of the pleasures of life, longs for a different love, one faraway, but realizes that it is unlikely that he will ever find her. The chorus, made up of his old companions, laugh at his dreams and tell him the woman he sings about does not exist. However, a Pilgrim, recently arrived from abroad, tells Jaufré that such a woman does indeed exist because he has met her. Jaufré then devotes himself to thinking only of her.
The Pilgrim, having returned to Tripoli, meets Clémence and tells her that, in France, a prince-troubadour extols her in his songs, calling her his “love from afar”. Although this initially offends her, Clémence begins to dream of this strange and faraway lover, asking herself if she is worthy to receive such devotion.
Upon his return to Blaye, the Pilgrim again meets Jaufré and tells him that the lady now knows that he sings about her. Jaufré decides that he must now travel to meet her.
However, Clémence seems to prefer that their relationship remains distant since she is reluctant to live constantly waiting and does not want to suffer.
On impulse, Jaufré sets out to meet his “love from afar”, but not without some trepidation. He anguishes that he has not made the right decision, so much so that he becomes severely ill, that sickness increasing the closer he gets to Tripoli. Finally, he arrives there, but he is dying.
The ships berths and the Pilgrim hurries off to tell the countess that Jaufré has arrived, that he is close to death, and that he asks to see her. Carried on a stretcher, Jaufré is brought to the citadel unconscious, but in the presence of Clémence, he recovers somewhat. With Jaufré approaching death, the couple embrace and confess their love for each other. When he dies in her arms, Clémence rages against Heaven and considers herself responsible for the tragedy. She decides to enter a convent and the last scene shows her in prayer. However, her words are ambiguous: it is not clear to whom she is praying on her knees, to her faraway God or to her “Love from afar”.
It's an unusual opera in that there's virtually no action - all the tension comes from what goes on in the minds of the characters. Because the music is so slow one could be excused for thinking after five or ten minutes that one is in for two hours plus of boredom, but Saariaho's magical score slowly but surely draws you in and by the time that it's over you're convinced that you've just seen a masterpiece. It helps of course to have a cast of singers/actors as good as the ones we have here. It's hard to imagine anyone doing a better job than Finley, Upshaw and Groop do here in their respective parts. Leaving aside those three there's only an off stage chorus that's often used to magical effect.
I have no idea if other posters here would like this opera since it's so different from most other opera's we discuss here. There are some youtubes, but this is not a work you can judge from watching three minute snippets.....
...but....
[YT]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpkFJZDkqAI[/YT]
....and from another (NOT this DVD) spectacular looking production.....
[YT]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cJ9IHm6Tto[/YT]
kaija saariaho
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by jhar26
