Radio Design Labs EZ-PH1 phono preamp > Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 Ocr tesseract 5.0.0-alpha-20201231-7-gc75f Ocr_detected_lang en Ocr_detected_lang_conf 1.0000 Ocr_detected_script Latin The Met chorus shines throughout in an opera that spotlights choral music, and the entire production is stunning to watch, from the giant Trojan horse rolling across the stage to the final tableau of smoke from Dido's funeral pyre rising to the great hole in the roof of the Pantheon in Rome. You may read more about this in my MWI colleague John Sheppard’s review. But he was an experienced Aeneas, having sung the role to acclaim last summer when Covent Garden introduced a new production.That was another instance of Mr. Hymel saving the day in “Les Troyens.” The opera would be less of a marathon if it were two separate operas. Even better would be to get rid of nearly all of the dancing. There are introspective solos, stirring ensembles, a passionate love duet, rousing choruses, and intricate orchestral passages. No. The general jubilation of the Trojans is muted by Cassandra, Priam's daughter, who keeps telling anyone who will listen that the horse spells doom, and they should all flee. No. As Cassandra, Voigt is no less in top form, her voice rich and powerful, full of foreboding, yet resigned to her fate as well as that of Troy. Only Aeneas, advised by Hector's ghost to leave and establish a new Troy in Italy, escapes. There were many notable aspects to the performance of "Les Troyens" at the Metropolitan Opera House on Thursday night. The components never quite gel, though, into a memorable, epic whole. Online, The Met has got rid of the intervals and got it down to 4 hours 20 minutes. Les Troyens is a French grand opera in five acts by Hector Berlioz, with a libretto written by the composer himself based on Virgil's Aeneid.The score was composed between 1856 and 1858, but Berlioz did not live long enough to see the work performed in its entirety. Act 1, the walls of Troy, in David McVicar's production of Les Troyens. Everything about Les Troyens is big. From Ovid to Dante to our own time, every era has had its own Virgil. Exclusive music reviews and news, created specifically for classical music listeners, from the serious collector to the inquisitive newcomer. The opera begins with the Trojans waking one morning to find that the Greeks had all decamped, leaving their famous wooden horse behind. This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC. The performance of Les Troyens was wonderful, powerful and totally worth seeing. Les Troyens has generally received positive reviews. And of all epic operas, Berlioz's monumental Les Troyens now stands in the first rank, thanks in large part to James Levine's championing of it at the Metropolitan Opera. The Met returned Francesca Zambello's grand 2003 production to the stage last night with a cast that for the most part was up to the opera's demands. Complete your Berlioz* - Vickers*, Veasey*, Lindholm*, Royal Opera House Covent Garden Orchestra* & Chorus*, Colin Davis* collection. The disappointment in this revival is Marcello Giordani as Aeneas. ‘Two Women’ and ‘Les Troyens’ Reviews The San Francisco Opera Brings the horrors of war to the stage. Berlioz, a student of the classics from childhood, wrote his own libretto for Les Troyens straight from the pages of Virgil's Aeneid, though he expanded the part of Cassandra. It moved him to make a pilgrimage to Italy to visit sites from the poem and, most vital for posterity, to write the words and music for Les Troyens, his glorious five-act opera after Books II and IV of The Aeneid, revived in uneven style at the Metropolitan Opera Thursday night. Les Troyens GENERAL MANAGER Peter Gelb MUSIC DIRECTOR James Levine PRINCIPAL CONDUCTOR Fabio Luisi Libretto by the composer, based on Virgil’s Aeneid Saturday, January 5, 2013, 12:00–5:00 pm Last time this season The production of Les Troyens was made possible by a generous gift from the Estate of Francis Goelet, Mr. and Mrs. Ezra K. Zilkha, The new production, directed by David McVicar and conducted by Antonio Pappano, is therefore a major event, presenting as much of a challenge to the company's resources as any other single work in the repertory. Thank you for visiting Gramophone and making use of our archive of more than 50,000 expert reviews, features, awards and blog articles. Les troyens (2003) Music, Drama | TV Movie 26 October 2003 This epic opera follows Virgil, beginning as the Greeks appear to have ceded the field after ten years of the Trojan War. 116 likes. See all 2,908 reviews. That's partly a result of Pappano's fondness for slow tempi, especially in the second and third acts (he moves the fifth and final one along much more purposefully). Here in his debut Met production, he displayed considerably more confidence and power as a replacement for Marcello Giordani. It sometimes seems more glossy pageant than gritty production, and vocal standards are uneven. Les Troyens is Berlioz's most ambitious work, the summation of his entire artistic career, but he did not live to see it performed in its entirety. Thank Ann O . There's one glorious, totally compelling performance: Anna Caterina Antonacci's Cassandra dominates the first two acts, making every word and every gesture count, always making her presence mean something, and no one else comes close to matching her intensity. It is less than perfect, but it deserves a lot of credit for taking on such a large-scale opera in I imagine a short allocated time. It is a long evening in the opera house – five and three-quarter hours on the first night – and the cheers that greeted the final curtain might well have been tinged with relief that the whole thing had finished. Last night's concert performance of Berlioz's Les Troyens was not a Prom for the fainthearted. He and designer Es Devlin, with costume designer Moritz Junge, locate the show more or less at the time of its composition, in the 1850s, when Second Empire France was preoccupied with its colonial ambitions. Classical review by Charlotte Gardner. Les Troyens is probably his masterpiece and it is so truthful at every moment that Berlioz is never conventional; yet he achieves this while being truly classical, in the manner of Gluck. Les Troyens – review 4 / 5 stars 4 out of 5 stars. Les Troyens is a marathon, lasting 5 hours and 30 minutes. Berlioz was called a 'genius without talent' by Mendelssohn, and while that assessment is clearly harsh, it is not without some merit. I have seen it every time that the Metropolitan Opera has presented it. With Les Troyens, Berlioz has undoubtedly created the most monumental of Grands opéras, but it would be wrong to reduce the work to its dimensions: The Fall of Troy, followed by the tragic love story of Dido and Aeneas, isn’t something you can tell in a one act drama. In Part 2, Aeneas and his followers have washed up on the shore of Carthage, where they are welcomed by Queen Dido and her court. THE PARIS OPÉRA'S new Dmitri Tcherniakov staging of Hector Berlioz’s Les Troyens was one of the most-anticipated events of the current Paris season. 020 8418 0616 jonathan_woolf@yahoo.co.uk . Only the second part was performed in Berlioz's lifetime. And then there is this production of Les Troyens, one of Berlioz's masterpieces and quite possibly the quintessential grand opera. Exclusive music reviews and news, created specifically for classical music listeners, from the serious collector to the inquisitive newcomer. The production, conducted by music director Philippe Jordan, celebrated the thirtieth anniversary of the opening of the Bastille as well as the 150th anniversary of the composer’s death. The score in Les Troyens ranges from the majestic to the sublime. Photograph: Tristram Kenton. There was the return of … There will be six more chances to see this massive and exciting work this season, including a Live in HD performance on Jan. 5 that will be shown in 1,900 theaters in 64 countries. Le Lycée Classique 3 de Daloa ou Lycée Antoine Gauze aura été pour nous, anciens élèves, plus qu'une école, un esprit, une famille: LES TROYENS. 25 Recitative and Aria "Errante sur les mers" (Didon) 19 Les Troyens, H. 133a: Act III. In “Les Troyens” Berlioz’ musical palette enhances the range of emotions displayed by Graham’s Dido. Discover releases, reviews, track listings, recommendations, and more about Berlioz* - Vickers*, Veasey*, Lindholm*, Royal Opera House Covent Garden Orchestra* & Chorus*, Colin Davis* - Les Troyens at Discogs. Anyway, for all his megalomania, Berlioz had an eye for detail. Although I love Les Troyens and already have the Met DVD and the Susan Graham one, I bought this for DiDonato, truly a magnificent Didon. Royal Opera House, London Andrew Clements. And the rest of the cast is also excellent. Though Scottish Opera brought the fine staging it shared with Opera North and Welsh National Opera to Covent Garden in 1990, it is 40 years since the Royal Opera itself gave a complete staged performance of Berlioz's Les Troyens. Visually it was a mixed bag for me. One pleasant surprise in the cast is a lovely delivery of the beautiful final act aria "Vallone sonore" by Paul Appleby, and one can hope Met audiences will have the chance to hear more of him. Part 2, Les Troyens à Carthage and the only oddity the placement of the Royal Hunt and Storm after the love duet to open the second part of an opera, a practice often followed if the opera is to be performed over two evenings. There are certainly moments when this production hangs fire. We made it easy for you to exercise your right to vote. Musically, it is resplendent, a huge success by a stellar cast under the leadership of Andrew Davis; conceptually, which is really to say visually, this "Troyens" - The Trojans - struggles to bear its own leaden weight." Ask Ann O about Royal Opera House. Michael Spyres is able to sing Énée's music in the original key and the conducting is beyond exciting. Tap here to turn on desktop notifications to get the news sent straight to you. Read Full Review. Review of Les Troyens (2000) By Wesley Morris (10,495) for San Francisco Examiner (4,210) on 20 Aug 2017 Like a Sally Field movie by Vittorio De Sica: Zhang wants to … Date of experience: June 2012. T hough it is one of the landmarks in 19th-century French music, and one of the grandest of all grand operas, new versions of Les Troyens, Berlioz’s vast Virgilian epic, come along all too rarely. Photograph: Tristram Kenton, hough Scottish Opera brought the fine staging it shared with Opera North and Welsh National Opera to Covent Garden in 1990, it is 40 years since the Royal Opera itself gave a complete staged performance of Berlioz's, The Trojans hail the horse, unaware that it is hiding Greek soldiers. Part of HuffPost Entertainment. Photograph: Tristram Kenton, Act 3, Dido in Carthage. Of all history's epic battles, few are more storied than the siege of Troy. Tue 26 Jun 2012 07.22 EDT First published on Tue … Written in five acts, the opera was rejected for years before the Theatre Lyrique agreed to stage it, but only if the composer would divide it into two parts. The Trojans in the first part fight in Crimean uniforms, their city protected by walls built from the metal detritus of war; the Greeks' fire-breathing Trojan horse is more huge machine than animal. The problem is also partly one of Berlioz's pacing, especially as McVicar resists temptations to invent extra business to quicken the dramatic pulse of the tableau-like sections. Hector BERLIOZ (1803-1869) Les Troyens, opera in five acts, Op. One never senses either the passion he feels for Dido or the call of duty to reach Italy, and his singing is tentative and often badly strained. Why not register today and enjoy the following great benefits: Free access to 5 subscriber-only reviews per month; Unlimited access to news, features, blogs, awards and artist content; Weekly email newsletter This Met revival, the first in nearly 10 years, comes almost 150 years after half the opera had its premiere in Paris and vindicates the indifference with which Berlioz's last major work was originally greeted. Levine brought the complete Les Troyens to the forefront of opera repertory by opening the Met's centennial season in 1983 with a new production that cast Placido Domingo as Aeneas, Jessye Norman as Cassandra, and Tatiana Troyanos as Dido, and it has returned at roughly 10-year intervals ever since. ©2021 BuzzFeed, Inc. All rights reserved. Lawrence B. Johnson Perhaps the question under review here, however, relates more to the opera's artistic worth than to the performance. Graham engages in beautifully sung close harmony with Dido’s sister Anna (performed by German soprano Okka von der Damerau), in Dido’s rapturous love music with Brandon Jovanovich’s Aeneas, and in Dido’s rage, desperation and resignation in preparation for the death she wills for herself. Mezzo-soprano Susan Graham (Didon) and tenor Bryan Hymel (Enee) in Berlioz's "Les Troyens." Sign up for membership to become a founding member and help shape HuffPost's next chapter. 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les troyens review

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This revival is carried by splendid performances by Susan Graham as Dido and Deborah Voigt as Cassandra, along with the always excellent Met chorus and orchestra under the exacting and fast-paced conducting of Fabio Luisi. Graham's voice is like crystal, luxuriant in coloring and texture, and always thrilling to hear. Today is National Voter Registration Day! Hector Berlioz’s massive opera boasts 5 acts, lasts nearly 5 hours even with numerous small cuts (and two 30-minute intermissions), has 22 named roles, and requires a vastly expanded chorus (about 100 singers) and 2 orchestras (the main one in the pit and another offstage) as well as a short ballet. Graham is exquisite as Dido. Dido's Carthage is a colourful, terracotta kingdom, in which a model of the city, like a north African Bekonscot, is the focal point; it's suspended over the stage to suggest the moon of the fourth act, and lies broken in half in the final one, when Aeneas and his retinue leave. Opera aficionados, however, may take issue with the direction of the production and opt for the 2003 version with Susan Graham which is far more traditional. There are introspective solos, stirring ensembles, a passionate love duet, rousing choruses, and intricate orchestral passages. If you can stomach the 4-hour running time and odd costume design, Les Troyens is a unique adaptation of Berlioz's opera with very good sound quality and an excellent image. Regal and majestic in bearing and gowned all in white and purple, she is full of longing and desire one moment and fierce in her rage at abandonment later on. You can read the full review where it was originally posted online. Support us financially by purchasing this from. The opera, in five acts, clocks in at about five hours, and requires 95 instrumentalists, 16 solo singers, 90 choristers, and, being French, a ballet troupe. As anyone with a smattering of the classics knows, Cassandra's warnings are ignored and the rape and pillage that follow wipe Troy from the map. For all its scattered weirdness and longueurs, "Les Troyens" is an important opera, and Lyric's first take on it is a triumph. She sings it as if Berlioz wrote it for her. Les Troyens seems to be a lucky charm for Hymel. 18 Les Troyens, H. 133a: Act III. Find album reviews, stream songs, credits and award information for Berlioz: Les Troyens - Thomas Beecham on AllMusic Les Troyens, Abidjan. The score in Les Troyensranges from the majestic to the sublime. Twice in a less than a year he has been called in as a replacement Aeneas, the first occasion being David McVicar’s production at the Royal Opera House in summer 2012. As Aeneas, Bryan Hymel, who came into the cast when Jonas Kaufmann dropped out, gained in confidence as the evening went on and made something special out of his final aria, but Eva-Maria Westbroek's small-scale Dido is sometimes touching but never alluring. Still, Hanna Hipp as Anna and Barbara Senator as Ascanius both make a strong impression, and there are fine contributions from Brindley Sherratt as a gnarled old Narbal and Ashley Holland as Panthus, while Ed Lyon sings Hylas's ravishing aria wonderfully. Aeneas and Dido fall in love and it is only after a return visit by Hector's ghost that Aeneas sails on to found Rome, leaving Dido in a suicidal rage and prophesying eventual revenge on Italy by Hannibal. Berlioz worshipped Virgil and composed Les Troyens on an epic scale equal to his source material. lp_les-troyens_hector-berlioz-jon-vickers-josephine-vease Identifier-ark ark:/13960/t3718b929 Lineage Technics SL1200MK5 Turntable + Audio-Technica AT95e cartridge > Radio Design Labs EZ-PH1 phono preamp > Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 Ocr tesseract 5.0.0-alpha-20201231-7-gc75f Ocr_detected_lang en Ocr_detected_lang_conf 1.0000 Ocr_detected_script Latin The Met chorus shines throughout in an opera that spotlights choral music, and the entire production is stunning to watch, from the giant Trojan horse rolling across the stage to the final tableau of smoke from Dido's funeral pyre rising to the great hole in the roof of the Pantheon in Rome. You may read more about this in my MWI colleague John Sheppard’s review. But he was an experienced Aeneas, having sung the role to acclaim last summer when Covent Garden introduced a new production.That was another instance of Mr. Hymel saving the day in “Les Troyens.” The opera would be less of a marathon if it were two separate operas. Even better would be to get rid of nearly all of the dancing. There are introspective solos, stirring ensembles, a passionate love duet, rousing choruses, and intricate orchestral passages. No. The general jubilation of the Trojans is muted by Cassandra, Priam's daughter, who keeps telling anyone who will listen that the horse spells doom, and they should all flee. No. As Cassandra, Voigt is no less in top form, her voice rich and powerful, full of foreboding, yet resigned to her fate as well as that of Troy. Only Aeneas, advised by Hector's ghost to leave and establish a new Troy in Italy, escapes. There were many notable aspects to the performance of "Les Troyens" at the Metropolitan Opera House on Thursday night. The components never quite gel, though, into a memorable, epic whole. Online, The Met has got rid of the intervals and got it down to 4 hours 20 minutes. Les Troyens is a French grand opera in five acts by Hector Berlioz, with a libretto written by the composer himself based on Virgil's Aeneid.The score was composed between 1856 and 1858, but Berlioz did not live long enough to see the work performed in its entirety. Act 1, the walls of Troy, in David McVicar's production of Les Troyens. Everything about Les Troyens is big. From Ovid to Dante to our own time, every era has had its own Virgil. Exclusive music reviews and news, created specifically for classical music listeners, from the serious collector to the inquisitive newcomer. The opera begins with the Trojans waking one morning to find that the Greeks had all decamped, leaving their famous wooden horse behind. This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC. The performance of Les Troyens was wonderful, powerful and totally worth seeing. Les Troyens has generally received positive reviews. And of all epic operas, Berlioz's monumental Les Troyens now stands in the first rank, thanks in large part to James Levine's championing of it at the Metropolitan Opera. The Met returned Francesca Zambello's grand 2003 production to the stage last night with a cast that for the most part was up to the opera's demands. Complete your Berlioz* - Vickers*, Veasey*, Lindholm*, Royal Opera House Covent Garden Orchestra* & Chorus*, Colin Davis* collection. The disappointment in this revival is Marcello Giordani as Aeneas. ‘Two Women’ and ‘Les Troyens’ Reviews The San Francisco Opera Brings the horrors of war to the stage. Berlioz, a student of the classics from childhood, wrote his own libretto for Les Troyens straight from the pages of Virgil's Aeneid, though he expanded the part of Cassandra. It moved him to make a pilgrimage to Italy to visit sites from the poem and, most vital for posterity, to write the words and music for Les Troyens, his glorious five-act opera after Books II and IV of The Aeneid, revived in uneven style at the Metropolitan Opera Thursday night. Les Troyens GENERAL MANAGER Peter Gelb MUSIC DIRECTOR James Levine PRINCIPAL CONDUCTOR Fabio Luisi Libretto by the composer, based on Virgil’s Aeneid Saturday, January 5, 2013, 12:00–5:00 pm Last time this season The production of Les Troyens was made possible by a generous gift from the Estate of Francis Goelet, Mr. and Mrs. Ezra K. Zilkha, The new production, directed by David McVicar and conducted by Antonio Pappano, is therefore a major event, presenting as much of a challenge to the company's resources as any other single work in the repertory. Thank you for visiting Gramophone and making use of our archive of more than 50,000 expert reviews, features, awards and blog articles. Les troyens (2003) Music, Drama | TV Movie 26 October 2003 This epic opera follows Virgil, beginning as the Greeks appear to have ceded the field after ten years of the Trojan War. 116 likes. See all 2,908 reviews. That's partly a result of Pappano's fondness for slow tempi, especially in the second and third acts (he moves the fifth and final one along much more purposefully). Here in his debut Met production, he displayed considerably more confidence and power as a replacement for Marcello Giordani. It sometimes seems more glossy pageant than gritty production, and vocal standards are uneven. Les Troyens is Berlioz's most ambitious work, the summation of his entire artistic career, but he did not live to see it performed in its entirety. Thank Ann O . There's one glorious, totally compelling performance: Anna Caterina Antonacci's Cassandra dominates the first two acts, making every word and every gesture count, always making her presence mean something, and no one else comes close to matching her intensity. It is less than perfect, but it deserves a lot of credit for taking on such a large-scale opera in I imagine a short allocated time. It is a long evening in the opera house – five and three-quarter hours on the first night – and the cheers that greeted the final curtain might well have been tinged with relief that the whole thing had finished. Last night's concert performance of Berlioz's Les Troyens was not a Prom for the fainthearted. He and designer Es Devlin, with costume designer Moritz Junge, locate the show more or less at the time of its composition, in the 1850s, when Second Empire France was preoccupied with its colonial ambitions. Classical review by Charlotte Gardner. Les Troyens is probably his masterpiece and it is so truthful at every moment that Berlioz is never conventional; yet he achieves this while being truly classical, in the manner of Gluck. Les Troyens – review 4 / 5 stars 4 out of 5 stars. Les Troyens is a marathon, lasting 5 hours and 30 minutes. Berlioz was called a 'genius without talent' by Mendelssohn, and while that assessment is clearly harsh, it is not without some merit. I have seen it every time that the Metropolitan Opera has presented it. With Les Troyens, Berlioz has undoubtedly created the most monumental of Grands opéras, but it would be wrong to reduce the work to its dimensions: The Fall of Troy, followed by the tragic love story of Dido and Aeneas, isn’t something you can tell in a one act drama. In Part 2, Aeneas and his followers have washed up on the shore of Carthage, where they are welcomed by Queen Dido and her court. THE PARIS OPÉRA'S new Dmitri Tcherniakov staging of Hector Berlioz’s Les Troyens was one of the most-anticipated events of the current Paris season. 020 8418 0616 jonathan_woolf@yahoo.co.uk . Only the second part was performed in Berlioz's lifetime. And then there is this production of Les Troyens, one of Berlioz's masterpieces and quite possibly the quintessential grand opera. Exclusive music reviews and news, created specifically for classical music listeners, from the serious collector to the inquisitive newcomer. The production, conducted by music director Philippe Jordan, celebrated the thirtieth anniversary of the opening of the Bastille as well as the 150th anniversary of the composer’s death. The score in Les Troyens ranges from the majestic to the sublime. Photograph: Tristram Kenton. There was the return of … There will be six more chances to see this massive and exciting work this season, including a Live in HD performance on Jan. 5 that will be shown in 1,900 theaters in 64 countries. Le Lycée Classique 3 de Daloa ou Lycée Antoine Gauze aura été pour nous, anciens élèves, plus qu'une école, un esprit, une famille: LES TROYENS. 25 Recitative and Aria "Errante sur les mers" (Didon) 19 Les Troyens, H. 133a: Act III. In “Les Troyens” Berlioz’ musical palette enhances the range of emotions displayed by Graham’s Dido. Discover releases, reviews, track listings, recommendations, and more about Berlioz* - Vickers*, Veasey*, Lindholm*, Royal Opera House Covent Garden Orchestra* & Chorus*, Colin Davis* - Les Troyens at Discogs. Anyway, for all his megalomania, Berlioz had an eye for detail. Although I love Les Troyens and already have the Met DVD and the Susan Graham one, I bought this for DiDonato, truly a magnificent Didon. Royal Opera House, London Andrew Clements. And the rest of the cast is also excellent. Though Scottish Opera brought the fine staging it shared with Opera North and Welsh National Opera to Covent Garden in 1990, it is 40 years since the Royal Opera itself gave a complete staged performance of Berlioz's Les Troyens. Visually it was a mixed bag for me. One pleasant surprise in the cast is a lovely delivery of the beautiful final act aria "Vallone sonore" by Paul Appleby, and one can hope Met audiences will have the chance to hear more of him. Part 2, Les Troyens à Carthage and the only oddity the placement of the Royal Hunt and Storm after the love duet to open the second part of an opera, a practice often followed if the opera is to be performed over two evenings. There are certainly moments when this production hangs fire. We made it easy for you to exercise your right to vote. Musically, it is resplendent, a huge success by a stellar cast under the leadership of Andrew Davis; conceptually, which is really to say visually, this "Troyens" - The Trojans - struggles to bear its own leaden weight." Ask Ann O about Royal Opera House. Michael Spyres is able to sing Énée's music in the original key and the conducting is beyond exciting. Tap here to turn on desktop notifications to get the news sent straight to you. Read Full Review. Review of Les Troyens (2000) By Wesley Morris (10,495) for San Francisco Examiner (4,210) on 20 Aug 2017 Like a Sally Field movie by Vittorio De Sica: Zhang wants to … Date of experience: June 2012. T hough it is one of the landmarks in 19th-century French music, and one of the grandest of all grand operas, new versions of Les Troyens, Berlioz’s vast Virgilian epic, come along all too rarely. Photograph: Tristram Kenton, hough Scottish Opera brought the fine staging it shared with Opera North and Welsh National Opera to Covent Garden in 1990, it is 40 years since the Royal Opera itself gave a complete staged performance of Berlioz's, The Trojans hail the horse, unaware that it is hiding Greek soldiers. Part of HuffPost Entertainment. Photograph: Tristram Kenton, Act 3, Dido in Carthage. Of all history's epic battles, few are more storied than the siege of Troy. Tue 26 Jun 2012 07.22 EDT First published on Tue … Written in five acts, the opera was rejected for years before the Theatre Lyrique agreed to stage it, but only if the composer would divide it into two parts. The Trojans in the first part fight in Crimean uniforms, their city protected by walls built from the metal detritus of war; the Greeks' fire-breathing Trojan horse is more huge machine than animal. The problem is also partly one of Berlioz's pacing, especially as McVicar resists temptations to invent extra business to quicken the dramatic pulse of the tableau-like sections. Hector BERLIOZ (1803-1869) Les Troyens, opera in five acts, Op. One never senses either the passion he feels for Dido or the call of duty to reach Italy, and his singing is tentative and often badly strained. Why not register today and enjoy the following great benefits: Free access to 5 subscriber-only reviews per month; Unlimited access to news, features, blogs, awards and artist content; Weekly email newsletter This Met revival, the first in nearly 10 years, comes almost 150 years after half the opera had its premiere in Paris and vindicates the indifference with which Berlioz's last major work was originally greeted. Levine brought the complete Les Troyens to the forefront of opera repertory by opening the Met's centennial season in 1983 with a new production that cast Placido Domingo as Aeneas, Jessye Norman as Cassandra, and Tatiana Troyanos as Dido, and it has returned at roughly 10-year intervals ever since. ©2021 BuzzFeed, Inc. All rights reserved. Lawrence B. Johnson Perhaps the question under review here, however, relates more to the opera's artistic worth than to the performance. Graham engages in beautifully sung close harmony with Dido’s sister Anna (performed by German soprano Okka von der Damerau), in Dido’s rapturous love music with Brandon Jovanovich’s Aeneas, and in Dido’s rage, desperation and resignation in preparation for the death she wills for herself. Mezzo-soprano Susan Graham (Didon) and tenor Bryan Hymel (Enee) in Berlioz's "Les Troyens." Sign up for membership to become a founding member and help shape HuffPost's next chapter. 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