L Amour de loin Kaija Saariahos opera – bakgrund

lamour-de-loin-kaija-saariahos-opera-bakgrund Jaufre Rudel
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Folkets Hus och Parker direktsänder L’Amour de loin från Metropolitan i New York komponerad av finska Kaija Saariahos, vilket blir första gången på över 100 år The Met har en kvinnlig tonsättare. Den 10 december 19.00 visas den på ett stort antal av våra biografer runt om i Sverige. Finska Kaija Saariahos opera blir den första operan på Met komponerad av en kvinnlig tonsättare sedan 1903. Den är därmed den första livesända operan från Met av en kvinnlig kompositör. Det blir även första live- operan som leds av en kvinnlig dirigent, Susanna Mälkki.

L amour-de-loin-Kaija-Saariahos-opera-bakgrund

Verket hade premiär på Salzburgfestivalen år 2000 och är en av de mest prisade operorna under de senaste åren. Regissör för Saariahos längtansfyllda medeltida drama är den legendariske Robert Lepage. Operan är samproducerad med L’Opéra de Québec, där den hyllades förra sommaren, i samarbete med Ex Machina. Finska dirigenten Susanna Mälkki debuterar på Met, stjärnorna Susanna Phillips som Clémence, Eric Owens som Jaufré, och Tamara Mumford som Pilgrimen, som bär kärleksbudskap mellan dem.

Sammanställt av Viveca Carleson och anpassat till Operalogg.com av Mogens H Andersson

 

Synopsis – handlingen

Aquitaine, Tripoli, och till havs, 1100-talet.

Akt I

Prinsen av Blaye, Jaufré Rudel, är trött på nöjeslivet som ungdomarna i hans samhällsklass ägnar sig åt. Han längtar efter något annat, en avlägsen kärlek, men han har förlikat sig med tanken att han aldrig kommer att finna den. En kör av hans gamla kamrater kritiserar honom för att han förändrats och gör narr av honom. Han talar om för dem att kvinnan han sjunger om inte finns på riktigt. Men då hävdar en pilgrim som precis anlänt från utlandet att det faktiskt finns en sådan kvinna, och att han har mött henne. Jaufré kan nu inte tänka på något annat än henne.

Akt II

När pilgrimen återvänder till Tripoli möter han Grevinnan Clémence i staden och han avslöjar då för henne att en prinstrubadur i Västerlandet lovsjunger henne, och kallar henne för sin ”kärlek från fjärran ort”. Grevinnan blir först förnärmad, men sedan börjar hon drömma om sin underlige och avlägsne beundrare, men hon undrar också om hon verkligen förtjänar en sådan hängivenhet.

Akt III

När pilgrimen återvänder till Blaye träffar han Jaufré och berättar för honom att kvinnan vet om att han sjunger om henne. I denna stund beslutar sig trubaduren för att han måste träffa henne personligen.

Clémence verkar däremot föredra att hålla deras förhållande på avstånd. Hon vill inte leva i väntan, och hon vill inte lida.

Akt IV

Ute till havs är Jaufré otålig att finna sin ”kärlek från fjärran ort”, men samtidigt fruktar han deras möte. Han ångrar att han gav sig iväg så impulsivt och hans ångest gör honom sjuk. Han blir sjukare och sjukare ju närmare han kommer Tripoli. När han anländer är han döende…

Akt V

När skeppet anländer går pilgrimen i förväg för att meddela Clémence att Jaufré är där, men att han är på väg att dö och att han har bett om att få träffa henne. När trubaduren anländer till Tripolis fästning är han medvetslös och blir inburen på bår. I närvaro av kvinnan han sjungit om kommer han sakta tillbaka till livet. De två ”älskade från fjärran ort” träffas och trots tragedin som närmar sig bekänner de sin passion, omfamnar varandra och lovar att de ska älska varandra… När Jaufré dör i hennes armar riktar Clémence all sin ilska mot himlen. Sedan bestämmer hon sig för att gå i kloster, då hon tror sig vara skyldig till katastrofen som precis inträffat. I sista scenen ser vi henne be, men hennes ord är tvetydiga och det är svårt att veta vem hon tillber – sin avlägsna Gud, eller sin ”kärlek från fjärran ort”.

Återgivet med tillstånd av Chester Music, Limited.

 IN ENGLISH                                  

Place: In Aquitaine, Tripoli, and at sea Time: 12th century,

Act 1 – 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 (male but sung by a mezzo-soprano), recently arrived from abroad, tells Jaufré that such a woman does indeed exist because the Pilgrim has met her. Jaufré then devotes himself to thinking only of her.

Act 2 – 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.

Act 3 – First Scene – 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.

Second Scene – However, Clémence seems to prefer that their relationship remains distant since she is reluctant to live constantly waiting and does not want to suffer.

Act 4 – On impulse, Jaufré sets out to meet his “love from afar”, but not without some trepidation. He is anguished about the possibility that he has not made the right decision, so much so that he becomes severely ill, and the sickness increases as he gets closer to Tripoli. Finally, he arrives there, but he is dying.

Act 5 – The ship 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”.

Medverkande

Clémence – Susanna Phillips

Alabama-born soprano Susanna Phillips, recipient of The Metropolitan Opera’s 2010 Beverly Sills Artist Award, continues to establish herself as one of today’s most sought-after singing actors and recitalists. The 2016-17 season will see Ms. Phillips return to the Metropolitan Opera for a ninth consecutive season starring as Clémence in the Met premiere of Kaija Saariaho’s L’amour de Loin conducted by Susanna Mälkki, as well as a return of her acclaimed Musetta in Puccini’s La Bohème. In March 2017, Ms. Phillips will make her Zurich Opera debut as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni. She also appears as Cleopatra in Handel’s Giulio Cesare with Boston Baroque and Martin Pearlman. Last season saw Ms. Phillips return to the Metropolitan Opera starring as Rosalinde in the Jeremy Sams production of Die Fledermaus conducted for the first time by music director James Levine, as well as a reprise of her house debut role of Musetta in La Bohème. Additional engagements included a return to the stage of Lyric Opera of Chicago as Juliette in Gounod’s Romeo and Juliet under the baton of Emmanuel Villaume.

Pilgrimen   – Tamara Mumford

A graduate of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, Ms. Mumford made her debut there at age 23 as Laura in Luisa Miller, and has since appeared in more than 150 performances with the company. Some of which include Smeaton in the new production of Anna Bolena, and in productions of Rigoletto, Ariadne auf Naxos, Il Trittico, Parsifal, Idomeneo, Cavalleria Rusticana, Nixon in China, The Queen of Spades, the complete Ring Cycle, The Magic Flute, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Wozzeck.  Other recent opera engagements have included the title roles in the American premiere of Henze’s Phaedra and The Rape of Lucretia as well as the role of Nica in the world premiere of Yardbird, a chamber opera about the life of jazz legend Charlie Parker, at Opera Philadelphia, Carmen at Crested Butte Opera, Marta in Iolanta at Dallas Opera, the title role in Dido and Aeneas at the Glimmerglass Festival, Ottavia in L’incoronazione di Poppea at the Glyndebourne Opera Festival and the BBC Proms, Arsace in the American Premiere of Aureliano in Palmira and Orsini in Lucrezia Borgia at the Caramoor Festival, Isabella in L’Italiana in Algeri at Palm Beach Opera, the title role in The Rape of Lucretia at the Castleton Festival, and Principessa in Suor Angelica and Ciesca in Gianni Schicchi with the Orchestra Sinfonica Giuseppe Verdi di Milano.

 

Jaufré Rudel – Eric Owens

Bass-baritone Eric Owens has a unique reputation as an esteemed interpreter of classic works and a champion of new music. Equally at home in orchestral, recital, and operatic repertoire, Mr. Owens brings his powerful poise, expansive voice, and instinctive acting faculties to stages around the world. Eric Owens launches the 2016-17 season with his role debut as Wotan in David Pountney’s new production of Wagner’s Das Rheingold at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. He will sing a trio of operas at the Metropolitan Opera that include the MET premiere of Kaija Saariaho’s L’amour de Loin, a new production of Rusalka under Sir Mark Elder, and a revival of Idomeneo conducted by James Levine. Other highlights include recitals with Susanna Phillips at Carnegie Hall and Lawrence Brownlee at Lyric Opera of Chicago, a gala celebrating the Metropolitan Opera’s 50th anniversary at Lincoln Center, and for the third time he joins the Chicago Symphony’s Negaunee Music Institute to present an interactive recital for incarcerated youth with Riccardo Muti and Joyce DiDonato. Mr. Owens rounds out his season singing Rimsky-Korsakov’s Le Coq d’Or at Santa Fe Opera.

Dirigent – Susanna Mälkki

The 2016/17 season marks Susanna Mälkki’s debut year as Chief Conductor of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra where highlights of her inaugural season will include orchestral works by Berlioz, Mahler, Debussy and Messiaen. She was recently appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, beginning in autumn 2017 and is also Principal Guest Conductor of the Gulbenkian Orchestra. As a guest conductor at the highest level in both Europe and North America,

Mälkki’s recent highlights include returns to the San Francisco and Chicago Symphony Orchestras (both of which she returns to in summer 2017), New World Symphony, Bayerischer Rundfunk, London Sinfonietta and Oslo Philharmonic orchestras.

Kreativt team

Kompositör – Kaija Saariaho, se nedan!

Libretto – Amin Maalouf, se nedan!

Regi Robert Lepage

Robert Lepage is one of the foremost stage directors today and a leading figure in the Canadian avant garde, attracting particular attention for his multimedia-rich theatrical presentations as well as his innovative work with Shakespearian drama and opera. In 1994, Robert Lepage founded Ex Machina, a multidisciplinary production company, for which he is artistic director. Lepage and Ex Machina have toured numerous productions internationally to critical and popular acclaim, most notably “The Seven Streams of the River Ota” (1994) and “Elsinore” (1995). Robert Lepage directed a number of operas, including Bluebeard’s “Castle” and “Erwartung” at the Canadian Opera Company, “The Damnation of Faust” in Japan and Paris, and Lorin Maazel’s “1984” at the Royal Opera House in London in 2005. Finally, Cirque du Soleil asked him to create the permanent Las Vegas show named “KÀ” at the MGM Grand in 2005. Robert Lepage has always swung between supersized spectacles (Wagner’s “Ring cycle” for New York’s Metropolitan Opera, or Cirque du Soleil’s “KÀ” for the MGM Grand in Las Vegas) and exquisite small-scale, more personal works (“The Far Side of the Moon”, “The Blue Dragon” or “887”).

Scenografi & Kläder – Michael Curry

In thirty years, Michael Curry has achieved an international reputation as a production designer specializing in transformational scenery, large-scale puppetry, costuming, and character design. He collaborates regularly with the world’s foremost entertainment companies, such as The Walt Disney Company, Cirque du Soleil, the Olympic Committee, and the Metropolitan Opera, to create exhilarating performance experiences for global audiences. To realize his creations, Michael surrounds himself with a core team of fifty artists and technicians at his studio in Portland, Oregon. This specialized team provides a full spectrum of services, from concept development through to the final performance.

Ljusdesign – Kevin Adams

Kevin Adams is an American theatrical lighting designer. He has earned four Tony Awards for lighting design. In 2007 he received the Tony Award for Best Lighting Design of a Musical for Spring Awakening. In 2008 he received the Tony Award for Best Lighting Design of a Play and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lighting Design for The 39 Steps. In 2010 he received his third Tony Award (for light design of a musical) for his work on “American Idiot”. He won the 2014 Tony Award for Best Lighting Design of a Musical for his work on Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Other productions include Passing Strange, Next to Normal, the 2009 revival of Hair, Take Me Out, Everyday Rapture”.

Adams has worked at many regional and off-Broadway theaters and operas, including: The Public Theater, Roundabout Theatre, Second Stage Theatre, Encores!, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Playwrights Horizons, P.S. 122, Steppenwolf Theatre, Donmar Warehouse, New York City Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, and Houston Grand Opera. In 2009 he received two Tony nominations for lighting Hair and Next To Normal. In 2010, he was nominated for his work on American Idiot. 2002 he received an Obie Award for Sustained Excellence[3] and in 1998 and 2007 he received Lucille Lortel Awards for Outstanding Lighting of an Off-Broadway production. He received the Henry Hewes Design

Award in 2007 for lighting Spring Awakening and in 2010 for Hair[4] and in 2011 for American Idiot.

Lightscape-design  – Lionel Arnould

Lionel Arnould devient concepteur multimédia à Québec après des études complémentaires en illustration et création publicitaire à l’École des Beaux-Arts en France puis en infographie dans divers studios de créations publicitaires. Il collabore à plusieurs productions d’Ex-Machina, dont «Les aiguilles et l’opium version 2013»,«Hamlet/Collage» présenté en programmation permanente au théâtre des Nations de Moscou, «1984», la trilogie des dragons (version 2004), le Busker’s Opera, La damnation de Faust entre autres. Il participe aussi à plusieurs projets indépendants, comme «Constantinople» du Gryphon Trio (montréal en lumière 2007) et plusieurs productions du Théâtre Péril (L’homme atlantique et la maladie de la mort, Limbes, Nature Morte dans un fossé, Axël, Shopping and Fucking, C.H.S.). Il collabore à la conception du «Potager des visionnaires» de Franco Dragone au Musée de civilisation de Québec lors des festivités du 400e de Québec à titre d’illustrateur/concepteur et réalise le visuel diffusé au coeur de l’installation. En 2014, il participe à la création de «Norge» de Kevin Mac Koy, ainsi qu’à «Dans la république du Bonheur» de Christian Lapointe présentées au Théâtre du Trident , «Sauvageau Sauvageau» au Théâtre d’aujourd’hui (montréal) et au Théâtre Périscope en 2015. Sa passion et loisir favori reste la peinture et l’image statique non virtuel.

 

Praktisk information

Text: svensk text Beräknad längd: 3 tim Visas: 10 december 19.00

Biografer som visar L´amour de loin här

Du kan läsa handling/synopsis här

 

Den historiska bakgrunden

Korståg var en serie av religiöst inspirerade europeiska fälttåg, främst till Levanten och Egypten, som från slutet av 1000-talet företogs från den västerländska kristenhetens sida. Det rörde sig om krig auktoriserade av kyrkan och riktades mot folk som uppfattades vara den västliga katolska kyrkans fiender. Korståg sågs som såväl pilgrimsfärd som heligt krig beordrat av Gud via påven, i syfte att återerövra Jerusalem och Heliga landet från muslimerna. De två gamla rikena Rom och Bysans hade en ny gemensam fiende, nämligen araberna som hade tagit över östra Medelhavsområdet, Nordafrika, Sicilien och stora delar av Spanien. Man brukar räkna åtta eller nio stora korståg under 1000- till 1200-talet, förutom ett flertal mindre. Idag finns flera olika uppfattningar om vad som räknas som korståg. Vissa hävdar att endast expeditionerna österut för att befria Heliga landet eller stödja dess kristna invånare skall räknas. Andra anser att alla krig som auktoriserats av påven skall räknas. Då inkluderas bland annat även den spanska reconquistan, de nordiska och tyska expeditionerna till Baltikum och Ryssland och den spanska armadans angrepp på England. Korstågshistorien slutar först 1798, då Napoleon I erövrar Malta. Denna definition accepteras idag av de flesta. Vissa vill gå än längre, och hävdar att all kamp med religiösa förtecken skall betraktas som korståg.[1]

 

Trubadurer

Ordet härstammar från de trubadurer (fornfranska (nordfranska): trouvère, occitanska: trobador, “en som finner, hittar på” (dikt, berättelse, musik)) som var verksamma vid hoven i Occitanien – det som idag huvudsakligen är södra Frankrike, men som under medeltiden var ett kulturellt och politiskt självständigt område som inkluderade även norra delarna av såväl Italien som Spanien. Hertig Vilhelm IX av Akvitanien (1071–1126) fick hedersnamnet den förste trubaduren. En annan av de främsta var grevinnan av Dia. Till den tradition de etablerade, att sjunga underhållande, lyriska eller humoristiska visor på folkspråket (som där och då var occitanska), brukar alla som därefter sjungit på europeiska språk räknas som efterföljare. Vilhelm IX ärvde av sin far en grupp moriska sjungande flickor som tagits som krigsbyte, vilket tyder på att trubadurens rötter står att finna i Al-Andalus. 

Jaufré Rudel

 

Jaufre Rudel

Jaufre Rudel dies in the arms ofHodierna of Tripoli

Jaufré Rudel (Jaufré in modern Occitan) was the Prince of Blaye (Princes de Blaia) and a troubadour of the early–mid 12th century, who probably died during the Second Crusade, in or after 1147. He is noted for developing the theme of “love from afar” (amor de lonh or amour de loin) in his songs. Very little is known about his life, but a reference to him in a contemporary song by Marcabru describes him as being oltra mar—across the sea, probably on the Second Crusade in 1147. Probably he was the son of Girard, also castellan of Blaye, and who was titled “prince” in an 1106 charter. Girard’s father was the first to carry the title, being called princeps Blaviensis as early as 1090.[1] During his father’s lifetime the suzerainty of Blaye was disputed between the Counts of Poitou and the Counts of Angoulême. Shortly after the succession of William VIII of Poitou, who had inherited it from his father, Blaye was taken by Wulgrin II of Angoulême, who probably vested Jaufré with it. According to one hypothesis, based on flimsy evidence, Wulgrin was Jaufre’s father. According to his legendary vida, or fictionalized biography, he was inspired to go on Crusade upon hearing from returning pilgrims of the beauty of Countess Hodierna of Tripoli = Clémence in the opera, and that she was his amor de lonh, his far-off love. The legend claims that he fell sick on the journey and was brought ashore in Tripoli a dying man. Countess Hodierna is said to have come down from her castle on hearing the news, and Rudel died in her arms. This romantic but unlikely story seems to have been derived from the enigmatic nature of Rudel’s verse and his presumed death on the Crusade. Seven of Rudel’s poems have survived to the present day, four of them with music.

Hertigdömet Aquitaine

The Duchy of Aquitaine (Occitan: Ducat d’Aquitània, French: Duché d’Aquitaine, IPA: [dy.ʃe da.ki.tɛn]) was a historical fiefdom in western, central and southern areas of present-day France to the south of the Loire River, although its extent, as well as its name, fluctuated greatly over the centuries, at times comprising much of what is now southwestern France (Gascony) and central France.

Tripoli-s

Grevskapet Tripolis var en korsfararstat som uppstod i samband med det första korståget vid slutet av 1000-talet och början av 1100-talet. Grevskapet var beläget i norra halvan av nuvarande Libanon. Tripolis var den sista korsfararstat som grundades i Levanten.

Om verket

L’Amour de loin

L’Amour de loin (Love from Afar) is the first opera by the Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho from a five act French libretto by Amin Maalouf. The opera was given its world premiere performance on 15 August 2000 at the Salzburg Festival and its US premiere on 27 July 2002 at the Santa Fe Opera. Saariaho, living in Paris since 1982, had become familiar in 1993 with La vida breve by one of the first great troubadours of the 12th century, Jaufré Rudel. Prior to that she had seen a Peter Sellars staging of Messiaen’s opera, Saint-François d’Assise at the 1992 Salzburg Festival, but did not think that she was capable of writing one. However, the production convinced her of the possibility of transforming the poem into an opera, given Sellars’ sensibility and talents: “If that is an opera, then I can write one” she is quoted as saying.[1]  The idea for an opera on this subject was to evolve over the following seven or eight years. After she was so taken by seeing the original manuscripts of the story of Jaufré (the love-struck young poet who wrote to a faraway lover in Tripoli, Lebanon), she set his poem to music as Lonh in 1996, a score for soprano and electronic instruments. The sensibilities and backgrounds of both Amin Maalouf, a Lebanese-French author and journalist also living in Paris, and Saariaho – both voluntary exiles – brought them together to collaborate to turn “a seemingly simple story into a complex story very simply told. …. (And with) the straightforward trajectory of its plot, L’Amour de loin turns anxiously around deeper themes – obsession and devotion, reality and illusion, the loneliness of the artist, the need to belong”.[2] Having secured an advance commitment from the Salzburg Festival to stage the opera, Saariaho set about writing L’Amour de loin in 1999. Gerard Mortier, intendant of the Salzburg Festival, was at the origin of this project which included the participation of the SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden-Freiburg, an ensemble well known for its excellence in contemporary music. L’Amour de loin received the Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition in 2003. The opera’s first production became a joint commission by the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris and the Santa Fe Opera in addition to Salzburg. Peter Sellars directed the original production, as well as several later ones. Additional productions were staged at Stadttheater Bern, Switzerland (December 2001 onward), in Darmstadt, Germany in the spring of 2003, and at the Finnish National Opera in Helsinki in 2004. In 2005, Jan Latham-Koenig conducted two concert performances as part of the Al Bustan International Festival of Music and the Arts in Beirut. In 2008, the Bergen International Festival in Bergen, Norway opened with a production by the artists Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset, produced by Bergen National Opera (previously Den Nye Opera). They created an animated film in place of a stage setting.[3][4] The English National Opera presented a new production in July 2009 at the London Coliseum. The Canadian Opera Company presented a co-production with English National Opera and Vlaamse Opera in February 2012.[5] The Landestheater Linz presented a new production in 2015. The Aspen Opera Center presented it as part of the Aspen Music Festival and School’s 2016 summer season.[6] The opera will receive its Metropolitan Opera premiere in December 2016 in a production by Canadian director Robert Lepage. It is a co-production with Festival d’Opéra de Québec where it premiered during their Summer 2015 season.[7]

Jaufré Rudel, Prince of Blaye, and troubadour obsessed with idealized love Baritone
The Pilgrim, the go-between who carries messages back and forth Mezzo-Soprano
Clémence, the Countess of Tripoli Soprano

Om kompositören

Kaija Saariaho

Kaija Saariaho

Kaija Anneli Saariaho (Finnish: [ˈkɑij̯ ɑ ˈsɑːriɑho]; née Laakkonen, born 14 October 1952) is a Finnish composer based in Paris, France. Saariaho studied composition in Helsinki, Freiburg and Paris, where she has lived since 1982. Her research at the Institute for Research and Coordination Acoustic (IRCAM) marked a turning point in her music away from strict serialism towards spectralism. Her characteristically rich, polyphonic textures are often created by combining live music and electronics. In 1986, Saariaho was awarded the Kranichsteiner Preis at the Darmstadt International Summer Courses for New Music. In 1988, she won the Prix Italia for her work Stilleben and in 1989 both Stilleben and Io were awarded the Prix Ars Electronica.[1] In 2013 she was awarded the prestigious Polar Music Prize. During the course of her career she has received commissions from the Lincoln Center for the Kronos Quartet and from IRCAM for the Ensemble Intercontemporain, the BBC, the New York Philharmonic, the Salzburg MusicFestival, the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris and the Finnish National Opera, among others.[2] Saariaho was born in Helsinki. She studied at the Sibelius Academy under Paavo Heininen. After attending the Darmstadt Summer Courses she moved to Germany to study at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg under Brian Ferneyhough and Klaus Huber. She found her teachers’ emphasis on strict serialism and mathematical structures stifling, saying in an interview, “You were not allowed to have pulse, or tonally oriented harmonies, or melodies. I don’t want to write music through negations. Everything is permissible as long as it’s done in good taste.”[3] In 1980 Saariaho went to the Darmstadt Summer Courses and attended a concert of the French spectralists Tristan Murail and Gerard Grisey.[4] Hearing spectral music for the first time marked a profound shift in Saariaho’s artistic direction and these experiences guided her decision to attend courses in computer-music that were being given by IRCAM the computer music research institute in Paris. In 1982 she began work at IRCAM researching computer analyses of the sound-spectrum of individual notes produced by different instruments. She developed techniques for computer-assisted composition, experimented with musique concrète, and wrote her first pieces combining live performance with electronics. She also composed new works using IRCAM’s CHANT synthesiser.[5]  Three of her pieces are grouped under the same title because they were each developed with CHANT: Jardin secret I (1985), Jardin secret II (1986) and Nymphea (Jardin secret III) (1987).[6] Her works with electronics were developed in collaboration with Jean-Baptiste Barrière, a composer, multimedia artist and computer scientist who directed the IRCAM’s department of musical research from 1984-1987.[7] In Paris Saariaho developed an emphasis on slow transformations of dense masses of sound.[8] Her first tape piece, Vers Le Blanc from 1982, and her orchestral and tape work, Verblendungen, are both constructed from a single transition: in Ver Le Blanc the transition is from one pitch cluster to another, and in Verblendungen, it is from loud to quiet. Verblendungen also uses a pair of visual ideas as its basis: a brush stroke which starts as a dense mark on the page and thins out into individual strands, and the word Verblendungen itself, which means “dazzlements”.[9] Her work in the 1980s and 1990s was marked by an emphasis on timbre and the use of electronics alongside traditional instruments. Nymphéa (Jardin secret III) (1987), for example, is for string quartet and live electronics and contains an additional vocal element: the musicians whisper the words of an Arseny Tarkovsky poem, Now Summer is Gone. In writing Nymphea, Saariaho used a fractal generator to create material. Writing about the compositional process, Saariaho wrote, “In preparing the musical material of the piece, I have used the computer in several ways. The basis of the entire harmonic structure is provided by complex cello sounds that I have analysed with the computer. The basic material for the rhythmic and melodic transformations are computer-calculated in which the musical motifs gradually convert, recurring again and again.”[10] She has often talked about having a kind of synaesthesia, which is a neurological phenomenon in which the stimulation of one sense triggers other senses. Saariaho’s synaesthesia involves all of the senses, and she has said, “…the visual and the musical world are one to me… Different senses, shades of colour, or textures and tones of light, even fragrances and sounds blend in my mind. They form a complete world in itself.”[11] Saariaho has been married to French composer Jean-Baptiste Barrière since 1982.  

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