Berlioz Les Troyens

[knight66]

Two operas for the price of one......in a way. This is a piece of Wagnerian proportions and for many years it languished; under an assumption it was too elaborate and long to perform. It has only been in the last 40 years that it has had any real exposure, much advocated by Sir Colin Davis whose LP version really brought the piece to a wide audience. Since then it has become part of the standard repertoire, though still not very often performed for reasons both of expense and the difficulty of casting. I have been watching a version newly issued on DVD from The Met.

As with the performance of all such epic pieces, there are admirable aspects and blots on the landscape. Here, some of the blots are slightly surprising ones. This performance dates from 1983 and was the opening performance of that season. It was recorded for TV and whatever the technical reasons, the visuals are not satisfactory. Whenever the camera moves there is a slight but noticeable jerkiness. When the singers move with any swiftness, which does not happen often, the picture does not cope well. The sound is fine, but not hi-fi and the balance seems to submerge the woodwind, which are such a vital colour in the writing of Berlioz.

Despite all this, and other drawbacks, it is worth preserving and well worth seeing. Primary in the attractions of the performance is Jessye Norman as Cassandra. Her singing is completely epic in all the right ways. She pours warm tone over the considerable acreage of music that Berlioz allots to her. Her acting is committed and I cannot imagine the part being better performed. The character can seem endlessly whiney, but Norman takes it to another level of artistry. It was her debut with the Met and the crowd go bananas for her at the end of the first part. Well deserved.

Domingo is good. I had read that he sounded uncomfortable. It is such a strangely written part. There is not really a great deal of singing in sheer minutes, but it lies high, not just a matter of a few top notes, the tessitura is noticeably above the middle register. Domingo looks good and sings well, he also acts well; within the wooden confines of the production.

The third big gun is Tatiana Troyanos. She sings beautifully, but somehow I don't think this part is really her. The characterisation is laid on from the outside and in contrast to Norman, who does the authoritative grand dame as her default setting, Dido has to portray a much wider range of emotion and although it was perfectly satisfactory and Troyanos had a great voice, it somehow failed to engage me. I suspect she would have been more comfortable as Cassandra.

Now, in my opinion there should be four big guns, and although the Met fielded four, the fourth was the wrong part. Paul Plishka was luxury casting as Narbal, but he does not get much opportunity to show what he is made of...though to look at him, clearly he was constructed almost entirely out of carpet samples nailed round a large wheely-bin. No, the fourth big gun ought to be Anna. Berlioz writes a great deal of music for her and the part can be made into one of real significance. She is set in almost continual duet with either Narbal, or more often with Dido. In this production, instead of a big gun we got a peashooter, Jocelyne Tallon. She was barely adequate, simply not up to pitting herself against the other singers.

The last time I saw this piece Sarah Mingardo was Anna and she basically stole the show, as was clearly appreciated by the audience. Also, as indicated by the Met patrons, they were barely polite when Tallon took her bow....she milks it to a comic degree.

So, what of the production? I liked the sets, a vast revolve, two basic semi-abstract sets. As is now customary, we get gloom for Troy and warm Mediterranean colours for Carthage. A number of the costumes were fine, some comically tacky. The ballet was a complete embarrassment. I think it was telling that the Royal Hunt was not staged at all, instead we had an uninterrupted view of the rather unprepossessing and relatively young looking Levine. This is not a legitimate element in a concert, but in an opera, it does break up the suspension of belief somewhat.

The notes with the set praise the handling of the chorus, sorry, laughable. There is almost no movement, it is troop on, give it big, troop off. So many singers that it would need Spielberg to inject movement without them actually having industrial accidents. A great pity, it emphasised the static and drained energy from the production.

Levine paces it all well, though he was possibly inspired by Norman; because the first part is more dramatic than the second. I had thought in advance that it would be like watching a costumed concert and that was indeed the feeling at many points. Directed for TV by Brian Large, he gives us a lot of extended closeups of the soloists, a good decision. Many of the chorus look a bit of a fright frankly.

So, worth getting, but I have a feeling I will more often feed it through my Hi-Fi in sound only than watch the endless processions of tacky costumes. It does not have the glow or the thrust of Davis, it is much more traditional than the Gardiner version, but there is superb singing from the soloists and Norman is at her considerable peak.

Mike

[Maciek]

Thanks for the in-depth review, Mike.

[bhodges]

Despite all this, and other drawbacks, it is worth preserving and well worth seeing. Primary in the attractions of the performance is Jessye Norman as Cassandra. Her singing is completely epic in all the right ways. She pours warm tone over the considerable acreage of music that Berlioz allots to her. Her acting is committed and I cannot imagine the part being better performed. The character can seem endlessly whiney, but Norman takes it to another level of artistry. It was her debut with the Met and the crowd go bananas for her at the end of the first part. Well deserved.

I may have to get this, as a fan of Norman.  I saw this production when it came around years later (c. late 1990s?) but it wasn't with her.  First time seeing (or hearing) the opera, I wasn't the hugest fan, but who knows?  With Norman and the others, might be different. 

Thanks much for the detailed comments. 

--Bruce

[Tsaraslondon]

Thanks for that, Mike. Les Troyens is one of my favourite operas, maybe even my top favourite. Have you also seen the Gardiner DVD? I had been considering getting that and wondered how they compared.

Mention of Jessye Norman's Cassandra reminds me that I heard a Prom performance of the opera, back in the 1980s, at which she sang the role of Dido. Norman has never been one of my favourite singers, but she was certainly pretty unforgettable on that occasion. I also remember Felicity Palmer's Cassandra, who struck just the right note of slightly crazed doom. It having been a Prom performance, I assume a recording of it must exist somewhere in the BBC archives.

Another remarkable Dido was the Greek mezzo, Markhella Hatziano, who deputised for the original Dido in one of Colin Davis's LSO concert performances, back in 1993. She was origiinally to have sung Anna and took over at short notice, giving a performance that was nothing short of superb. All the critics raved about her, but then she seemed to completely disappear. I did see her once as Dalila at Covent Garden , with Jose Cura as Samson. She sang the part very well, but was a little dull, if I remember rightly; certainly no match for her magnificent Dido.

[knight66]

I only saw part two of the Gardiner, I felt that Graham was a penny plain Dido, she struck me as being too much the housewife and not enough the queen. As usual Gardiner has to unearth editorial differences, this time the ending. But it was less satisfactory than the usual one. Most people however rate this version highly.

My own favourite Dido was Janet Baker and Ponto have got hold of a complete performance, I think in English. They have been promising to issue it for some time now.

Mike

[T-C]

I have three DVD versions for Les Troyens: Gardiner, Cambreling (Salzburg 2000) and Levine. Gardiner's 2003 production from the Chatelet is my first choice for this opera on DVD. Levine 1983 production from the Met is actually my third choice...

I now favor less this kind of performance, with old-fashioned Cecil B. DeMille sceneries and costumes (lots of men in skirts, but the Trojan horse is peculiarly unimpressive). This is a complete performance, with all the beautiful ballet music, although the choreography is unimaginative and not especially interesting. 

Levine conducts well and the playing is good although it doesn't sound especially Gallic to me. Gardiner is much more idiomatic, and he follows with great meticulousness Berlioz's instructions, like the inclusion of musical instruments playing on stage.

Norman sings an impressive Cassandra, but her acting and facial expressions are too much for me. It is overblown to a point of not being persuasive. It may have been overwhelming in the theater, but in close-ups it sometimes looks ridiculous. Troyanos is a wonderful Dido, very moving in her final aria. Domingo is only partially successful as Enee. This is an extremely difficult part, and Domingo himself had doubts whether he should sing it. But he is very good in the great duet in the fourth act. Signers in the secondary parts are usually effective except for the tenor singing Hylas, which is totally unimpressive. He has only one aria in the beginning of the last act, but I love this aria. Technical quality is much less than perfect...

To sum up: for my taste, anyone seeking only one DVD of Les Troyens, should get the Gardiner. But devotees of this great opera will enjoy the Levine production too. And the Salzburg 2000 production has a lot to offer too, especially the singing of Deborah Polaski as both Cassandra and Dido.

Speaking of great Dido, one has to mention the great Regine Crespin who just passed away. What a wonderful and unique singer she was! Too bad she recorded only highlights from this opera.

[karlhenning]

Looking forward to the 'concert performance' of this at Symphony Hall!

[karlhenning]

So, did anyone catch the Tanglewood performance?  A friend of mine from NEC was in the chorus . . . .

[PerfectWagnerite]

Looking forward to the 'concert performance' of this at Symphony Hall!

The whole thing? That would make for a 4+ hr concert.

[karlhenning]

The whole thing? That would make for a 4+ hr concert.

Well, for two weeks they did either Part I or II;  then on the last Sunday, they did both, with something like a 3-hour intermission.  We went to Part II on a Friday evening.

The Tanglewood "replay" seems to have split it between Part I on Saturday night, and Part II Sunday afternoon.

[Tsaraslondon]

The whole thing? That would make for a 4+ hr concert.

I can never quite understand this obsession with Les Troyens being too long to stage or play (if in concert) on a single evening. It's shorter than Gotterdammerung and nobody ever thinks of splitting that in two.

[(poco) Sforzando]

I can never quite understand this obsession with Les Troyens being too long to stage or play (if in concert) on a single evening. It's shorter than Gotterdammerung and nobody ever thinks of splitting that in two.

On the other hand, people constantly complain about the length of Wagner's operas. But splitting Troyens may have its roots in the opera's origin, where Berlioz was forced to break it into two parts in order to have only Part II produced. I personally have no objections to a 4-hour opera in the theater, but I don't want to sit through a concert that long if there is no staging or acting.

I've seen Troyens at the Met twice, once in either production, and I think the new version an improvement - though I wish there had been more than a suggestion of the Trojan horse and I wish there had been a real tableau of Rome emerging at the end, as Berlioz calls for. Levine was all right in 2003, but at this stage of his career he's really too stolid for this kind of music, imho. My only DVD is the Gardiner and so I can't compare, but for audio only my preference is the first Colin Davis.

[karlhenning]

. . . I personally have no objections to a 4-hour opera in the theater, but I don't want to sit through a concert that long if there is no staging or acting.

Excellent point.

[Tsaraslondon]

Excellent point.

Though I'm guessing you would still prefer to hear a concert performance of Gotterdammerung in one evening, rather than split in two. Personally, I'd be quite happy to hear either it or Les Troyens in one evening, as long as the performance is a good one. But then a bad performance of a short piece can seem interminable.

Incidentally, Sforzando, I know that Berlioz himself split the piece in two, in order to just get the second part staged, but I would have thought that by now we could manage the whole work in one go. I certainly have no problem listening to it all in one go at home.

[karlhenning]

Incidentally, Sforzando, I know that Berlioz himself split the piece in two, in order to just get the second part staged . . . .

Right;  and we should not take every compromise which circumstance forces upon an artist, as indicating "artist's blessing."

Similarly, I resent the idea of the cuts in the Third Concerto as documented in Rakhmaninov's own performance with the Phila Orchestra, meaning that he was somehow compositionally "happy" with those cuts.

[zamyrabyrd]

Right;  and we should not take every compromise which circumstance forces upon an artist, as indicating "artist's blessing."

Similarly, I resent the idea of the cuts in the Third Concerto as documented in Rakhmaninov's own performance with the Phila Orchestra, meaning that he was somehow compositionally "happy" with those cuts.

Wasn't that connected with the length available on 78's for recording? Presumably he & the Philadelphians didn't do the cuts live. Otherwise, some of it comes off like a rude jolt especially in the last movement.

ZB

[karlhenning]

Wasn't that connected with the length available on 78's for recording? Presumably he & the Philadelphians didn't do the cuts live. Otherwise, some of it comes off like a rude jolt especially in the last movement.

No, apparently it was not a matter of technological limitation;  and yes, the cuts really are butchery.