L'amour de loin at Den Norske Opera & Ballett

Can you love someone without having met them? And can love survive an encounter with reality? These are some of the questions raised by Kaija Saariaho's critically acclaimed opera L'amour de loin.

The opera, which had its premiere at the Salzburg Festival in 2000, has been performed a number of times in Europe, the Middle East and Canada with great success. The libretto, written by the prizewinning French-Lebanese author Amin Maalouf, is based on the writings of the love-struck 12th century troubadour prince Jaufré Rudel who is in love with Clémence, a woman he has only heard about but never met.

The opera is presented without traditional direction, but with an animation film by the artistic duo Elmgreen & Dragset that serves as a bridge between the courteous love from afar dating back to the Middle Ages and modern-day internet culture. Similarly, Saariaho's music, with its slow moving tonal expanses and dynamic, also gives associations with both modernity and the Middle Ages.

This production of L'amour de loin received its premiere at the Bergen International Festival in 2008.