La Passion de Simone was commissioned jointly by the New Crowned Hope festival in Vienna, the Barbican Centre, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

On a suggestion by director Aleksi Barrière and conductor Clément Mao-Takacs,[2] the composer created a chamber version of the piece that has been more popular (both in terms of critical response and number of productions) than the original.

But the orchestration is for 19 musicians and uses no electronic elements, and four solo voices replace the SATB chorus –a feature that Saariaho later reused and developed in her opera Only the Sound Remains, which she started composing soon after completing the arrangement of La Passion de Simone.

This "poignant production",[3] which has been described as "superb in every sense" by the press,[4] has since toured worldwide with soprano Sayuri Araida in the main role, and was performed as the local premiere of the chamber version in France,[5] Finland[6] and the USA among others.

Other stage productions were eventually created of this chamber version, among which: a new staging by Peter Sellars starring Julia Bullock (Deutsche Oper Berlin, 2015; Ojai Music Festival, 2016); the Australian premiere performance by Sydney Chamber Opera at the Carriageworks for the 2019 Sydney Festival, with soprano Jane Sheldon, conducted by Jack Symonds and directed by Imara Savage;[7][8] and a semi-staged performance conceived by conductor Christian Karlsen with Anne Sofie von Otter (Royal Swedish Opera, 2020).