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Emilie
Kaija Saariaho 1952
Het Muziektheater presents
in conjunction with De Nederlandse Opera
Opéra en neuf scènes
libretto by
Amin Maalouf
coproduction San Francisco Opera, Barbican Centre and Opéra national de Lyon
In her most recent opera, the Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho sketches the life of Emilie du Châtelet in a moving monodrama in nine scenes. An eminent figure of the Enlightenment, Emilie was far ahead of her time. Although a married woman with three children, she engaged in a longstanding affair with Voltaire, whom she considered the love of her life. Passion and science form the pillars of her existence, and together with Voltaire she set out to discover the ‘truth’ on both counts. Between these extremes Saariaho and librettist Amin Maalouf present Emilie in the last phase of her life. She died at the age of 42, shortly after the birth of a child by a younger lover, Saint-Lambert, but was still able to complete her life’s work: the French translation of Isaac Newton’s Principia Mathematica.
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