Kaija Saariaho’s Acclaimed Opera
L’Amour de Loin Has Its Met Premiere December 1,
Directed by Robert Lepage and
Conducted by Susanna Mälkki in Her Met Debut
The Finnish composer’s 2000 opera, about a medieval troubadour in search of love, features a libretto by the Lebanese novelist Amin Maalouf
Eric Owens stars as the troubadour Jaufré Rudel, with
Susanna Phillips as his faraway love Clémence, and
Tamara Mumford as the Pilgrim
New York, NY (November 25, 2016) – Kaija Saariaho’s L’Amour de Loin (“Love From Afar”), one of the most highly praised operas of recent years, will have its Met premiere on December 1 in a production directed by Robert Lepage and conducted by Susanna Mälkki in her Met debut. Lepage’s staging, which uses thousands of LED lights to create the sea that separates the opera’s distant lovers, is a co-production with L’Opéra de Québec, where it premiered to acclaim in the summer of 2015. Susanna Phillips stars as Clémence, the Countess of Tripoli, opposite Eric Owens as Jaufré Rudel, a troubadour on a quest to find his perfect love, and Tamara Mumford as the Pilgrim who carries messages back and forth between them.
Robert Lepage, known for directing the Met’s productions of Wagner’s Ring Cycle, Berlioz’s The Damnation of Faust, and Thomas Adès’s The Tempest, leads a production team featuring Michael Curry as set and costume designer, Kevin Adams as lighting designer, Lionel Arnould as lightscape image designer, Mark Grey as sound designer, and Sybille Wilson as assistant director.
The December 10 matinee performance will be transmitted worldwide as part of the 11th season of the Met’s Live in HD series, which now reaches more than 2,000 movie theaters in 70 countries around the world.
Further information, including biographies of principal artists, is available in our online press room here.
Performances: December 1, 6, 10mat, 14, 17, 21, 24mat, 29. Curtain times vary: complete schedule here. Running time: 2 hours and 33 minutes, one intermission.
Tickets begin at $25; for prices, more information, or to place an order, please call (212) 362-6000 or visit www.metopera.org. Special rates for groups of 10 or more are available by calling (212) 341-5410 or visiting www.metopera.org/groups.
Same-day $25 rush tickets for all performances of L’Amour de Loin are available on a first-come, first-served basis on the Met’s Web site. Tickets will go on sale for performances Monday-Friday at noon, matinees four hours before curtain, and Saturday evenings at 2pm. For more information on rush tickets, click here.
