The Stage

L’Amour de loin

Published Monday 6 July 2009 at 10:25 by George Hall

To a libretto by the Lebanese writer Amin Maalouf, Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho’s first opera - here translated as Love From Afar - was premiered in Salzburg in 2000 and has since had several productions internationally. ENO’s staging, its first in the UK, is by new wave circus director Daniele Finzi Pasca, best known for his work with Cirque du Soleil, to strikingly evocative designs by Jean Rabasse and Kevin Pollard.

The piece itself focuses on just two characters. Jaufre Rudel is a medieval French troubadour who falls in love with the idea of a countess in far-off Tripoli, and she, Clemence, with him. Bringing them news of each other is the Pilgrim, who also accompanies Jaufre on his eventual trip to meet his distant lover, only to see him expire as he reaches her arms. It’s a simple symbolic tale of a love whose perfection lies in its unreality.

In its hazy, insubstantial way, Saariaho’s lavishly coloured score is undeniably beautiful and delivered with some magic by ENO’s orchestra under Edward Gardner. Pasca’s production is a riot of movement and colour, using gorgeous costumes, video, acrobatics and flying to create an atmosphere of fantasy that disguises the paucity of solid material in the piece. There are fine central performances from Roderick Williams’ purposeful Jaufre, Joan Rodgers’ Clemence and Faith Sherman’s Pilgrim. It’s an evening of genuine beauty, visual and musical - though arguably there’s more on the surface than lies beneath.