Ms. Saariaho, who hadn’t had the desire to write an opera, changed her mind after seeing Mr. Sellars’s 1992 staging of Messiaen’s “St. That experience, Ms. Saariaho told her publisher, “opened my mind to what can be done by telling a story with music,” and led to a series of collaborations with the soprano Dawn Upshaw, one of its stars. And so Ms. Saariaho entered the 21st century with the premiere of her first opera, “L’Amour de Loin,” which was widely celebrated as a masterpiece and considerably raised her international profile. Francois d’Assise” team, including Mr. Sellars and Ms. Upshaw. Her output, Mr. Salonen said, “can be seen as a vast forest where all these plants and trees grow, and they’re in sort of a symbiotic relationship with each other.

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Persons: Saariaho, hadn’t, Francois d’Assise ”, “, Dawn Upshaw, Rudel’s, Amin Maalouf, Sellars, Upshaw, Anthony Tommasini, ”, Salonen, Mr Organizations: Salzburg Festival, The New York Times, ” Locations: “ St, Austria, “, Finland