Berlioz: Les Troyens

A great Olympic challenge for the renowned London Opera House, after a break of almost forty years, to give both parts of the five-act monumental work “Les Troyens” by Hector Berlioz in an opulent staging by David Mc Vicar in one evening, unabridged. Antonio Pappano conducted this mammoth work with an outstanding cast and an excellently disposed orchestra.

Hector Berlioz (1803-1869) wrote his opera “Les Troyens” (The Trojans) between 1856 and 1858. Inspired by Princess Carolyne Sayn-Wittgenstein, Franz Liszt’s long-time companion, Berlioz began to write a libretto based on Vergil’s “Aeneis” himself before he began to compose the extensive five-act work. “The Trojans” were quasi Berlioz’s counter-draft to the Germanic mythological world of Richard Wagner, whom he initially admired very much, but then quarreled fiercely with. Berlioz’s opera is divided into two parts: “The Taking of Troy” (Act I and II) and “The Trojans in Carthage” (Act III – V). Les Troyens” moves in full epic breadth on the floor of the Grand Opéra with the typical mixture of varied theatrical elements such as festivals, ballets, cult ceremonies, love scenes and large ensembles. But Berlioz had great difficulty bringing the opera, or even parts of it, to the stage. In 1859 he could hear fragments in Baden-Baden, the last three acts “The Trojans in Carthage” were premiered in November 1863 in the Théâtre Lyrique in Paris. The five acts were not performed in their entirety until December 1890 in Karlsruhe, 21 years after the composer’s death.