Wait!  Don’t give up on the modern operas yet.  There is a perfectly enjoyable opera from the year 2000 hanging out there among the bizarre stuff we are all afraid of.

L’Amour de Loin is by the Finn Kaija Saariaho, and she knows what she is doing with operas.

Look, EE / Music majors:

At IRCAM, Saariaho developed techniques of computer-assisted composition and acquired fluency in working on tape and with live electronics. This experience influenced her approach to writing for orchestra, with its emphasis on the shaping of dense masses of sound in slow transformations.

Do you already know her?

Anyway, with L’Amour, you get a simple story -- an ill-fated love between two people separated by non-awareness, played out by just 3 characters and the chorus.

I could not track with the music easily.  It does not flow smoothly, and it is more dissonant and unpredictable than Strauss’ Salome.  But this is a series of well-crafted arias and duets, and whatever sort of music this is, it helps establish the mood and the feelings of the challenged and ultimately hopeless lovers.

Most of the time, I was distracted by the stunningly nonstandard stage set.  It looks a lot like an active ocean in every scene, with nearby boats, faraway boats, and the choristers who rise up like hungry fish.  This one is up there with “Damnation of Faust” and “Rheingold” for astonishing set construction.

Das Rheingold had Eric Owens, the troll being taunted by the Rhein Maidens.  Here, he is the lovesick poet and singer, who sends messages to his beloved (whom he does not know) via messenger boat, piloted by Tamara Mumford, whom we last saw taunting Eric Owens from the riverbank, along with Lisette Oropesa.

Mumford was also up there even earlier, beaten senseless by King Henry VIII, because she was a minstrel named Smeaton who also had his eye on Anne Boleyn, in Donizetti’s terror-fest. 

Again with the mezzo pants role, concave cheeks and hollow eyes notwithstanding.  But credit is due for amazing determination, as she repeatedly crisscrosses the Mediterranean Sea by poling an unpowered skiff.  (At one point she mentions that she is using a sail, but I could see that she is not.)

I don’t know Susanna Phillips, but she did a good job, falling in love from afar with Eric Owens, based only on Tamara’s paraphrasing of Eric’s poetry and love songs.

Too bad, but as soon as these two meet, Owens dies.  Kind of “out of nowhere” in the plot, I would say to Ms. Saariaho if she asked me.  It would make more sense if he had died due to some aspect of the boat trip, maybe a big sacrifice in his diet or his daily exercise schedule, or something.  But here, he just has a heart attack.

So, this one is easy to grasp, and exploits the singing talent on stage with long and heartfelt pieces, which are great if you don’t try to sing along.