A new production of Kaija Saariaho and Amin Maalouf’s L’Amour de Loin, a joint project of the Opera de Québec and the Metropolitan Opera — where it is scheduled for a future season — had its premiere at the Festival Opera de Québec (seen Aug. 1). Called “hypnotic” after its world premiere at the 2000 Salzburg Festival, L’Amour de Loin has had several stagings since, including the first U.S. production at Santa Fe in 2002. The opera’s lack of action demands extraordinary efforts from a director: it is simply not dramatic. Saariaho’s spare musical world can be intriguing; it ranges from seductive to alien,
welcoming and frightening as the sea, but too little happens.