Customer Reviews

Saariaho: L'Amour de loin

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Kaija Saariaho is rapidly becoming one of the more daring and creative of our current crop of contemporary composers. Hailing from Finland, she has good colleagues in this country who consistently provide audiences with the rare beauties of her compositions. One of her most ardent supporters is fellow composer and conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen who indeed conducts the performance of her opera "L'Amour de Loin", leading the Finnish National Opera and superb soloists Dawn Upshaw, Gerald Finley, and Monica Groop. The bizarre aspect of this release is that the DVD of the opera was released before the CD of simply the music. One viewing will explain that choice.

The opera is based on a 12th Century tale of love as filtered through the experiences and musings and dreamings and illusions of a countess, a troubadour and a wandering pilgrim. The staging is simple, built around a tower from where the object of love is seen and sees and the characters weave in and out of this simplicity of stage design created by the inimitable Peter Sellars by means of fascinating lighting schemes. There is no 'big story', just 'reflections on love from afar' as the new fairly frequently performed excerpts are called.

Gerald Finley is a brilliant and handsome baritone who not only has a voice of great beauty and clarity but one who is a committed actor as well (he is currently premiering the lead role of Robert Oppenheimer in John Adams' new opera 'Dr. Atomic' with the San Francisco Opera). He is magnificent to hear and to see. Dawn Upshaw and Monica Group take the women's roles and while everyone is aware of the quality of emersion in new work that accompanies the mention of Upshaw's name, Monica Groop prove herself to be in the same echelon. This gorgeous music, perfectly sung and acted, masterfully conducted by Salonen, and the DVD is of the highest quality. While it is a gift to be introduced to Saariaho's fine opera via DVD, it will be good to have the recording of the music alone to grow into what seems to merit entry into the standard repertoire. Highly Recommended. Grady Harp, October 05

I, too, was mesmerized by this disc--not just the music, which is indeed hypnotic in that Debussy-to-Messiaen strain, but the entire production fascinated me. Those ravishing images--the pilgrim's boat, Upshaw's final "apotheosis" (another right word) in that reflecting pool--say what you will about Peter Sellars and Mozart, or whoever long gone, but here in our troubled century, the vision is perfect. On the stength of this video, I am trying to plan a trip to Paris to see the premiere of Saariaho's next opera, Adriana Mater--also with a libretto by Malouf and staging by Sellars. This is definite proof that opera is still a viable medium.

In the mid-1990s Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho became attracted to the poetry of Jaufre Rudel, the 12th-century troubadour and lord of Blaye who wrote striking poems of love to a woman far away whom he couldn't and, possibly, never even did meet. In "Lonh" for soprano and electronics (1996), she set one of his songs for Dawn Upshaw to sing, and then she wrote her first opera L'AMOUR DE LOIN ("Love from Afar") on the theme. This 2004 performance is by the Finnish National Opera. It's conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen, a long-time proponent of Saariaho's music, having known her since their days at school. This staging is directed by Peter Sellars, whose quirky stage design actually agrees with the composer's intentions this time (imagine that).

According to Rudel's unreliable biography, his love was for the Countess of Tripoli, whom he never saw but to whom he nonetheless pledged his eternal love. Amin Maalouf's libretto treats precisely this part of his life. In the first act, Rudel (a baritone, here Gerald Finley) in his castle reflects how he's stuck in a rut, no longer able to show daring skill with women and make other men jealous. A pilgrim comes and tells him of a woman he saw on the other side of the sea, who is everything Rudel says he desires. The troubadour decides to desire only her, and yet he knows he cannot even see her. The pilgrim is an androgynous persona, treated as male but sung by a woman (a mezzo-soprano, here Monica Groop). This pilgrim moves back and forth across the sea, speaking individually to the Countess of Tripoli (a soprano, here Dawn Upshaw), and then Rudel again. Eventually, Rudel decides to travel with the pilgrim to Tripoli, meeting his destiny in a tragic ending. Maalouf is a fantastic librettist, I can think of few scenes in opera as moving as the duet between Rudel and the Countess in Act IV. And although there are only three characters (and an unseen chorus representing the young men of Blaye and the young women of Tripoli), there is never that there's not enough going on; dramatic tension stays high throughout.

Saariaho's music is quite systematic. The part of Rudel is subtle, full of small steps. The soprano is characterized by wide leaps on a diatonic scale. Strikingly, the song of the pilgrim changes based on who she is addressing, reflecting her role as intermediary. The orchestral music is concerned mainly with timbre, with occasional flashes of vibrant colour as in Messiaen or Debussy. The unseen chorus, consisting as it does of kinsmen and kinswomen who try to bring Rudel and the Countess to their senses, are accompanied by music of disruption: percussion blasts, pizzicato. The music is generally impressive, but some portions prevent me from giving this opera a five-star rating. After the middle of the 1990s, Saariaho's writing changed noticeably, and she began to eschew electronics and write overt melodies, a turn for the worst compared to her masterpieces of the early '90s, such as "Amers", "Du cristal", and "Six Japanese Gardens". Most of the opera holds its own against this early great pieces, and electronics happily abound (many sounds realized at IRCAM). Yet certain moments are all too typical of what she is writing now. Take, for instance, the beginning of act IV, as the pilgrim is sitting in his ship. The music of the scene (written also as an individual piece, the first movement of her "Oltra Mar" for choir and orchestra), is trite and bombastic and like something of out a 1970s sci-fi soundtrack. Or the scene near the end where the people of Tripoli admonish the countess, music so banal and simplistic one would hardly suspect it the work of Saariaho.

I'm never one to review well the sound and video possibilities of DVDs, as I watch them on a laptop screen and listen with headphones, but this is no poor print and the sound seems impeccable. The DVD contains a "bonus" of three interviews, with Saariaho, Salonen, and Sellars. One regrets that there's no interview with Maalouf, who bears such a great part of the responsibility for this work.

In spite of some minor complaints, any fan of contemporary music, or even general opera (there's little of the "weird modernism" or "dissonance" that could frighten traditional listeners) should see this fascinating work. Among the operas of the last 30 years, L'AMOUR DE LOIN will certainly rank among the most universally accessible (it's certainly no Ligeti's "Le Grand Macabre").

I must admit, I was mesmerized by this piece. It runs around 2 hrs. and 15 mins. without a break, albeit I took one. The cast of 3 was superb and there is an intensity here that you rarely find in a new work. I takes awhile to get into the flow of the piece but then I just couldn't break away from it. The music is very listenable but will not be to everyone's liking, for sure. I would definitely recommend reading the info in the booklet before starting to watch it.

Kaija Saariaho has been making a stellar reputation for herself as a force in contemporary music (thanks in part to the advocacy of her old school chum Esa-Pekka Salonen). After years of swearing she'd never write something as old school as an opera, she produced "L'amour de Loin," which more or less translates as "The Distant Love." It's a curiously undramatic plot: a poet, bored with his life of endless partying, falls in love with a woman he's never met. A traveling pilgrim conveys his poems to the woman, and she falls in love with him, or more, the idea of him. In an attempt to meet his idealized love, the poet crosses the sea, and becomes ill. The two "lovers" meet for the first time, only to have the poet die. But what remarkably passionate music Saariaho invests in this play of ideas, and how exquisitely Dawn Upshaw, Gerald Finley and Monica Groop sing it; the off-stage choral writing is also remarkably powerful. Moreover, for all it's beauty and passion, this score never ever sounds like a 19th century pastiche. Brava to the composer for demonstrating that it is possible to write music that is emotionally compelling without having to revive the vocabulary of Romanticism. Bravo, too, to DGG for bringing out the work on DVD: Dawn Upshaw's final scene is one of the most stunning moments of lyric theater I've ever seen.

The previous reviewers describe the opera quite eloquently and thoroughly. The music placed in the throat of "Rudel" is particularly moving, and Gerald Finley sings gloriously. As a scholar and performer of troubadour music myself, I find the subtle echoes of Medieval poetry and nearly subliminal inflections of troubadour melody very interesting and effective. This is a masterful opera, beautifully staged.

The pacing of this drama makes Tristan seem like Keystone Cops. But the production is mesmerizingly beautiful, along with the music, which though perhaps grueling to perform, confers instant stardom to its cast. I think it will become part of the standard repertory, because the story is so spectacularly romantic. I was impressed how much was invested in the production of a work by such an unfamiliar composer. It's intensely focused, beautifully written and uncompromising in concept. Owning this DVD is definitely preferable to merely having a recording I should think. The set is fantastic.

Let's not beat about the bush. This is an opera in which practically nothing happens. In terms of action, the troubadour Rudel makes a sea voyage from Europe to Africa, gets ill on the way and dies almost as soon as he reaches his `distant love' and that's about it. And all of that happens in Acts 4 and 5. In musical terms, there is very little musical development of the few fragmentary themes, little in the way of obvious melody apart from what comes from Rudel himself in the 12th century and not that much rhythmic interest either.

And yet it can be a totally riveting piece.

It is the kaleidoscopic colours of the score that lie at the heart of the piece. Saariaho is a mistress of the orchestral palette, evoking deep rumblings, glittering flashes, turbulent storms and, at times, a heart-rending keening from both the vocal and instrumental lines. The vocal lines throughout, even if they lack some of the instant melodic memorability of some modern operas, also lack the seemingly arbitrary angularity of many others. They are almost always lyrical and, even when they lie high in the singers' registers, still fall happily on the voice. And the last scene of the opera, when the lovers finally meet and when, after Rudel's death, his `amour lointain' is left to sing her searing prayer (to God? to Eros? certainly to Love in all its guises) is an intensely moving liebstod - certainly as sung here by Dawn Upshaw.

With such a signal lack of action, any production has to work pretty hard to maintain the listener/viewer's concentration. This Peter Sellars production, taken from performances in the composer's native Finland, is certainly visually arresting. The set simply consists of two shining metal spiral staircases, one to the left and one to the right of the stage, representing the castles in France and North Africa respectively. Between them and all round their feet is a large expanse of water (real water, that is), broken only by the shape of the Pilgrim's boat. This makes things pretty tough for the singers playing Rudel and Clemence. For the first 3 Acts they have to do all their singing and acting within the confines of their respective stairways which is both confining and limiting. Then, with freedom, comes a soaking - by the end of the piece, poor Dawn Upshaw is soaked to the skin. For all that, it has to be admitted that the stage pictures are very beautiful. This is a production at the opposite extreme from the recent one at the London Coliseum where all the floating and flying and supernumerary players for the principals just became distracting.

Having said that, the performances of the principals themselves on this DVD are excellent. Gerald Finley who plays the troubadour, Jaufre Rudel, has always shown himself a fine actor and a fine vocal actor, too, colouring his voice and shaping phrases to give them individuality, character and meaning. So it is here. Constricted as he is by the production to spiral staircase, Pilgim's boat and deathbed, he still engages our interest, involves us and finally moves us as he goes from adumbrating his ideal unattainable distant love to actually embracing her. Monica Groop makes the sometimes thankless role of the Pilgrim into a real person as she moves back and forth across the water between the French staircase and the African staircase. And, when she gets to sing Jaufre's songs to Clemence, she makes the most of the most immediately memorable and beautiful melodic lines.

Dawn Upshaw is simply stunning as Clemence, the amour lointain of Jaufre's imagination. As the focus of the opera gradually moves from Rudel to Clemence, so Upshaw takes hold of the work and its music (and of us, the audience) and makes of the final scene a totally harrowing and moving piece of theatre. Her great ambiguous final hymn to Eros, Thanatos, God, probably all three, is one of the great moments in theatre, captured here on DVD.

Despite my caveats about the production and even about the static nature of the drama and the music, this is an important opera of the new century (just) and on this DVD proves itself a compelling and ultimately an intellectually and emotionally piece of theatre.

The five stars might as easily be one. Having had no expectations from a Finnish composer of whom I had never heard, the opera had no standards of mine to meet. I took what came. Whatever ones taste, one can see objectively that there is a high degree of complementarity among scenic design, bodily movements, music and song. They fit closely. I cannot imagine how the production was perceived by the live audience so heavily was the action geared to the camera's eyes. Closeups were the order of the day, faces, features of faces, bodies, features of bodies filled the screen. In essence, I found the entire opera to be made up of a series of fixed images flowing one into another, with the camera lovingly embracing each gesture, each image of color, the few pieces of scenery, the light, the water onstage; at the same time, the music gives each image its nuance, its emphasis, its body. On the other hand, it is a ceremonial piece, living images flow slowly before us with almost stately or sacred quality, a sort of stream of static audio-visual snapshots.
Well, it wasn't Verdi or Puccini, it was moving but without much movement. Not at all to everyone's taste; perhaps, to the taste of only a few. That is why I suggest that before laying out whatever the price may be, you watch a generous sample, preferably the whole thing. There is more than an even chance that for the lover of Mozart or the Romantics this will fall flat on its face.

Fear not,the vocal writing is no more difficult to listen to and just as lovely as Richard Strauss' Arabella. Believe me. It has a slight undertone of the medieval. For such a minimal plot things really heat up once the Pilgrim has returned to tell of the Countess response and our hero is distressed by the apparent failure of the Pilgrim's mission. The orchestral writing is subtle and mystical in support of the singers and when called for gets quite dramatic with the expected contemporary masses of sound. I would expect Wagner's music was like this to the ears of the public when his operas premiered. Plenty of people felt it wasn't music at all so give this a chance. There is no shreiking here, no ridiculously difficult tessitura, the vocal writing is all very comfortable. The libretto is suffused with a poetry of it's own in both words and action. All three singers are in terrific voice and sing gorgeously.