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. Complete your Berlioz. Vickers., Veasey., Lindholm., Royal Opera House Covent Garden Orchestra. & Chorus., Colin Davis. collection.
- Find album reviews, stream songs, credits and award information for Berlioz: Les Troyens - Charles Dutoit on AllMusic - 1994.
- Share on Facebook; Share on Twitter; Share Berlioz's epic masterpiece retells the magnificent saga of the aftermath of the Trojan War and the exploits of Aeneas. Rising tenor Bryan Hymel, in his Met debut, stars as the hero charged.
- I identified 'Les Troyens' not as a Grand Opera (which it is) but as Epic Opera to emphasize the Vergilian source of Berlioz's inspiration. Berlioz had a profound appreciation of Vergil's 'Aeneid' as did the whole Western world until the twentieth century when his star dimmed as Homer's grew brighter.
- Berlioz - Les Troyens / Hector Berlioz - TrojansYear of manufacture: 2009Genre: OperaLanguage: FrenchDirector: Carlos PadrissaConductor: Valery GergievPerfor.
Les Troyens: Orchestral excerpts (H 133)
Combat de Ceste, from Act I
Act II Scene 1
Lamento for Les Troyens à Carthage
3 Entrances, from Act III
Trojan march in the minor key, from Act III
Royal Hunt and Storm
3 Ballets, from Act IV
See also Textsand Documents; BerliozLibretti; Berliozand his music: self-borrowings; The première of Les Troyens in 1863; Aneglected source for les Troyens?
Written between 1856 to 1858 and revised up to 1863, Les Troyens was Berlioz'slargest and most ambitious work, and the summation of his entire artisticcareer. Its origins go back to his childhood and his reading of Virgil'sAeneid under his father's instruction, as he recalls in his Memoirs (chapter2). Thereafter Virgil was never far from his thoughts – citations from theRoman poet abound throughout his writings, and notably in his correspondence and his feuilletons.The trip to Italy in1831-2 gave Berlioz the opportunity to visit some of the places associated withVirgil's epic. The great work thus matured in his mind for many years before he eventuallyundertook to write it, after much hesitation, as he recalls in his Memoirs.It represented the convergence of a multiplicity of influences, literary andmusical. On the literary side Berlioz ascribed a major part to Shakespeare'sinfluence in addition to that of Virgil. On the musical side the majorinfluences were those of Gluckand Spontini.For Berlioz the composition of Les Troyens represented thus in many waysa return to his roots.
Combat de Ceste(Boxing fight)
This short and livelydance is taken from Act I of Les Troyens. It follows the ceremonial marchand hymn of the Trojan people (Dieux protecteurs de la ville éternelle)and precedes the entrance of the tragic figure of Andromache and her son, whenthe music changes to a minor key and a much slower tempo. The name is derivedfrom the Latin caestus, a kind of leather glove loaded with balls of leadand used in boxing matches. Berlioz almostcertainly borrowed the idea of this dance from the funeral games in Book Vof Virgil's Aeneid.
Act II Scene 1
Act II of Les Troyens takes place the night after the Trojans haveintroduced the gigantic wooden horse, full of Greek soldiers, into the city.Aeneas lies asleep in his palace, to the sound of fighting in the distance (bars1-25). His son Ascanius, frightened by the sounds, makes a brief appearance butwithdraws without waking his father (bars 26-74). The shade of Hector thenstrides in majestically and looks at Aeneas asleep (bars 75-89). Aeneas wakesabruptly and addresses Hector (bars 90-106), who warns him of the fate of Troyand orders him to escape and seek out Italy where he is to found a new empire(bars 107-35). After this Hector withdraws to the same eerie music that hadaccompanied his entry (bars 136-42).
This scene of Act II is based on Virgil's Aeneid, Book II, lines 250-97.Both Aeneas' address to Hector and Hector's warning follow very closely thewording of Virgil's text (lines 281-6 for Aeneas, 289-95 for Hector). ButBerlioz characteristically adds an element that is missing from his Virgilianoriginal – the brief entry of the frightened boy Ascanius, to the accompanimentof fast and delicate music that contrasts strikingly with the solemn music ofthe rest of the scene. The music in this scene is pervaded with motifs thatrecur elsewhere in the opera, notably the bass line in the orchestralintroduction (bars 2-4, 6-7, 12-14, 16-17), which is associated with Cassandraand her prophetic warnings of doom in the first two Acts, and the rhythm in bars1-3, 12-13, 66-9, 92-6, 98-100 and 104-5, associated throughout the opera with fate. Theslow descending chromatic scale of Hector's warning (bars 107-35) recurs in ActV towards the end of the opera, but this time connected with Dido's decision totake her own life after burning on a funeral pyre the gifts she had receivedfrom Aeneas.
In order not to cut off the music abruptly the whole scene is given in fullscore up to the start of the scene that follows, but the parts of Aeneas andHector have been silenced.
Lamentofor Les Troyens à Carthage
This piece was not part of Berlioz's original design, in which thework was conceived as one single opera in five acts, but resulted from thecompromise forced on Berlioz by the realisation that he would have to settle fora truncated version if he was ever going to see the work staged in Paris. It waseventually performed in November and December of 1863 at the newly built Théâtre Lyrique, but shorn of the first two acts, and with numerous cuts inthe remaining three which were produced under the name of Les Troyens à Carthage.For this production a prologue was composed by Berlioz in June 1863 to summarise the actionbefore; the prologue is preceded by the orchestral Lamento presented here. TheLamento looks back to the first two acts – its maintheme is taken from the scene and duet between Cassandra and Coroebus in Act I,but at a much slower tempo the music now takes on the character of a funeral dirge, like a lament over the fall ofTroy and the fate of its people. But it also looks forward to what is to come.The phrase in the violins (bars 4-8), and again in the violas and cellos (bars 12-16),carries multiple echoes – it alludes to the first aria of Cassandra in Act I (Malheureuxroi), but also anticipates a theme prominent in Act III in the duet between Dido and her sisterAnna, then in Dido's monologue preceding the entry of the Trojans (Errantesur les mers). It also carries an echo of Dido's final recitative and ariain Act V in which she resolves to die after being abandoned by Aeneas (Inutile prièred'un cœur qui se déchire).
Cisco nexus gns3. 3Entrancesfrom Act III
These three orchestral pieces are part of the opening scenesof Act III, when Dido addresses the people of Carthage and celebrates theachievements of the city seven years after its foundation. As part of thefestivities processions of various trades — builders, sailors, farm-workers— come forward before the queen who presents them with symbolic gifts. Thoughshort all three pieces are exquisitely crafted and characterised, and addfurther variety and colour to the opening scenes. They form an integral part ofthe work and should never be omitted, but as Berlioz mentionsthey were cut from the first performances of Les Troyens à Carthage inNovember and December 1863 and this deplorable practice is sometimes followed inmodern performances.
Trojanmarch in the minor keyfrom Act III
This orchestral piece occurs later in Act III and accompaniesthe entrance of the Trojan refugees who have just arrived in Carthage and areintroduced before Dido. When it is first heard in the opera, at the conclusionof Act I, the Trojan March is in a bright major key (B flat), while here theminor key (also B flat) reflects the broken fortunes of the Trojan people afterthe fall of Troy and their flight overseas. The piece should be compared withthe orchestral version of the Trojan March whichis itself derived from the version of the march at the conclusion of Act I.
Note: the part of Dido in bars 16-21is omitted here.
Royal Hunt and Storm
This symphonic interlude comes between Acts III and IV of LesTroyens. The idea was suggested to Berlioz by a passage in Virgil's Aeneid(Book IV, lines 117-168), but as so often with Berlioz's use of literature formusic his treatment of the episode is very much his own and goes well beyond hisVirgilian original. The scene shows an African forest with a high rock at theback and the opening of a cave on the left; two naiads are seen bathing in apool nearby. This tranquil scene is interrupted by the sound of hunting hornsand the entrance of Trojan and Carthaginian hunters. A thunderstorm gathers, atthe climax of which Dido and Aeneas are seen entering the cave, while satyrs,fauns and sylvans perform grotesque dances and utter cries of 'Italie!'to remind Aeneas of his destiny. The storm gradually subsides and tranquility returns.
In Berlioz's hands, the Royal Hunt and Storm is much more than a magnificent piece of nature painting, remarkable as it isfor (among much else) its orchestration and the use of complex simultaneousrhythms. The storm is of course both literal and metaphorical: it represents therise and fall of the love of Dido and Aeneas. It is no accident that the openingchromatic phrase is found elsewhere in Berlioz in contexts which express theawakening of love – the opening of part II of Romeo and Juliet (Romeo'ssadness), or the aria of Beatrice in Act II of Beatrice and Benedict (Ilm'en souvient), which is quoted in the overture (bars 39-67, esp. the phrase at bars 47-51). The chromatic phrase of the introduction recurs in thesubsequent allegretto (bars 175-183, 201-3), then at theclimax of the storm (bars 266 and following) before gradually dying away, to bereplaced by a return of the diatonic theme heard in the introduction (bars 30and following, then bars 309 and following) and a final recall of the huntinghorns, but this time in a slower tempo.
Old frostwire. Older versions of FrostWire It's not uncommon for the latest version of an app to cause problems when installed on older smartphones. Sometimes newer versions of apps may not work with your device due to system incompatibilities. Until the app developer has fixed the problem, try using an older.
The concert version of the piece presented here containsthe same music as in the opera, but with a less elaborate orchestration (in theopera the hunting fanfares are given to off-stage brass bands); thechorus with its cries of 'Italie!' at the climax of the storm has alsobeen omitted.
Two technical points:
(1) In order to obtain the correct note values on playback ithas been necessary to notate a number of triplets and sextuplets in full and notin abbreviated form (bars 208-210, 212-13 for the piccolo; bars 266-8, 272-4 forviolins and violas; bars 284-298 for the violins; bars 295-9 for the violas).
(2) Berlioz's tempo marking for the quick section (starting atbar 44) is Allegretto, a marking he uses in different senses according to thecontext (see Hugh Macdonald in Berlioz Studies ed. Peter Bloom [1992],pages 35-6, though he does not discuss the Royal Hunt and Storm). Hegives a metronome mark of dotted crotchet = 112, which is brisker than in mostmodern performances. To enable the listener to judge, the piece is provided in two versions, the first with Berlioz's metronome marks(there is no problem with the opening larghetto),the second with a slower tempo for the Allegretto (here dotted crotchet = 100)which is close to modern performing practice. The first version involves a moreabrupt slowing down in the closing pages (from bar 284 onwards) in order tobring the tempo back to that of the opening larghetto, which seems required bythe context (bar 309 onwards).
Berlioz Les Troyens Boulez Ny Philharmonic
3 Ballets from Act IV
These 3 ballets come early inAct IV and accompany the celebrations held at Carthage after Aeneas' defeat ofthe hostile Numidian chieftain Iarbas. They were written towards the end of 1859and early in 1860, some time after the main body of the work which was composedin 1856-8. As well as containing fine and characteristic music, the ballets playan integral role in the work and are more than elegant concessions to theconventions of the Paris Opéra (for which Les Troyens was originallyintended). At the height of the festivities and the seeming happiness of Didoand Aeneas, the prevailing note of regret and loss struck by the music seems tohint at the tragedy that is to follow. There are also echoes that seemdeliberate. The first ballet alludes obliquely (bars 46-52 and 56-62) to Narbal'sforeboding in his aria at the start of the Act (De quels revers menaces-tuCarthage, sombre avenir?): key, time signature, melody, harmony, andinstrumental colour are similar (note the use of the trombones in thebackground). The same could be suggested for a passage in the second ballet(bars 65-82 and 92-100). The last ballet, in the exotic vein that Berlioz hadused previously in Part I of l'Enfance du Christ (cf. the dance of thesooth-sayers), is predominantly in the same key in which Act IV will end, when the interventionof the god Mercury shatters the dream of the two lovers and drags the music awayfrom the rarefied G flat major of the duet to the cold reality of E minor.
With this latter ballet may be compared the descriptiongiven by Berlioz (in Les Soirées de l'orchestre, XXIst soirée) of aperformance he heard in London in 1851, given by two Indian musicians to theaccompaniment of small drums: 'One of them sang, in some Indian dialect, apretty little melody in E minor, which only had a range of a sixth (from E toC); despite the quick tempo it was so sad, and conveyed such an impression ofsuffering, exile, slavery and despair, that on hearing it one was overcome withfeelings of nostalgia'.
On the ballets see also thearticle by Pierre-René Serna on this site.
Some technical points:
Ballet 1: the last repeat (bars 56-65) has beenwritten out in full to achieve the required dynamic contrast with the firststatement of the passage (Berlioz asks that the repeat should be played assoftly as possible).
Ballet 2: it is not clear what tempo Berlioz intendedfor this movement. The metronome mark given (crotchet = 122) is problematic intwo ways (cf. Hugh Macdonald in Berlioz Studies ed. Peter Bloom [1992],pages 22-3): the unit of time is given as a crotchet, not a dotted crotchet (orconceivably a quaver) as would be expected in a 6/8 time signature, and thefigure of 122 does not exist on the metronome scale available to Berlioz (thenearest figure is 120). Moreover, the tempo, though viable, is significantlyfaster than that adopted on the complete recordings of the work (for example by Sir ColinDavis and Charles Dutoit, both similar in speed). To our knowledge the onlyconductor to follow the printed metronome mark is Hermann Scherchen in his 1952recording of Les Troyens à Carthage. The piece has been presentedhere in two versions, the first as written by Berlioz, the second at a slightlyslower tempo (crotchet = 112). Since 112 is on the metronome scale it is justpossible that the figure of 122 is a mistake for it.
Ballet 3: there is no Midi sound for the ‘cymbalesantiques' which Berlioz uses here (as he did in the Queen Mab scherzo of Romeoand Juliet); the glockenspiel has been substituted.
Combatde Ceste (duration 1'20')
— Score in large format
(filecreated on 7.01.2000; revised 6.08.2001)
ActII Scene 1 (duration 6'24')
— Score in large format
(file created on 20.03.2001)
Lamentofor Les Troyens à Carthage (duration 4'18')
— Score in large format
(file created on 6.03.2001)
3 Entrancesfrom Act III:
Entranceof the builders (duration 1'9')
— Score in largeformat
Entranceof the sailors (duration 1'5')
— Score in largeformat
Entranceof the farm-workers (duration 1'32')
— Score in largeformat
(files created on 29.12.2001)
Trojanmarch in the minor key from Act III (duration 2'8')
— Score in largeformat
(file created on 1.01.2002)
RoyalHunt and Storm (1) with Berlioz's metronome mark for the Allegretto(duration 8'17')
— Score in large format
(filecreated on 26.10.2000; revised 11.12.2001)
RoyalHunt and Storm (2) with a slower tempo for the Allegretto (duration 8'47')
— Score in large format
(filecreated on 26.10.2000; revised 11.12.2001)
3Ballets from Act IV:
Ballet1 (duration 3'42')
— Score in large format
Ballet2 (a) with Berlioz's metronome mark (duration 3'58')
— Score in large format
Ballet2 (b) at a slower tempo (duration 4'20')
— Score in large format
Ballet3 (duration 1'26')
— Score in large format
(files created on 27.04.2001)
© Michel Austin for all scores and text on this page.
Backto Berlioz Music Scores
Berlioz's colossal masterpiece requires stupendous forces—dozens of soloists, enormous chorus, orchestra and ballet, a superb conductor who understands the uniqueness of the score—plus a production that does visual justice to the work. 'A stupendous achievement' was one critic's assessment of Peter Wexler's inventive production. And with James Levine's wizardry galvanizing the marvelous all-star cast, this is truly a gem. Plácido Domingo is the legendary hero Aeneas, Jessye Norman the obsessed prophetess Cassandra, and Tatiana Troyanos is Queen Dido, who commits suicide when Aeneas leaves her.
Full SynopsisPerformance Info
Performance Date
Oct 8, 1983
Composer
Hector Berlioz
This scene of Act II is based on Virgil's Aeneid, Book II, lines 250-97.Both Aeneas' address to Hector and Hector's warning follow very closely thewording of Virgil's text (lines 281-6 for Aeneas, 289-95 for Hector). ButBerlioz characteristically adds an element that is missing from his Virgilianoriginal – the brief entry of the frightened boy Ascanius, to the accompanimentof fast and delicate music that contrasts strikingly with the solemn music ofthe rest of the scene. The music in this scene is pervaded with motifs thatrecur elsewhere in the opera, notably the bass line in the orchestralintroduction (bars 2-4, 6-7, 12-14, 16-17), which is associated with Cassandraand her prophetic warnings of doom in the first two Acts, and the rhythm in bars1-3, 12-13, 66-9, 92-6, 98-100 and 104-5, associated throughout the opera with fate. Theslow descending chromatic scale of Hector's warning (bars 107-35) recurs in ActV towards the end of the opera, but this time connected with Dido's decision totake her own life after burning on a funeral pyre the gifts she had receivedfrom Aeneas.
In order not to cut off the music abruptly the whole scene is given in fullscore up to the start of the scene that follows, but the parts of Aeneas andHector have been silenced.
Lamentofor Les Troyens à Carthage
This piece was not part of Berlioz's original design, in which thework was conceived as one single opera in five acts, but resulted from thecompromise forced on Berlioz by the realisation that he would have to settle fora truncated version if he was ever going to see the work staged in Paris. It waseventually performed in November and December of 1863 at the newly built Théâtre Lyrique, but shorn of the first two acts, and with numerous cuts inthe remaining three which were produced under the name of Les Troyens à Carthage.For this production a prologue was composed by Berlioz in June 1863 to summarise the actionbefore; the prologue is preceded by the orchestral Lamento presented here. TheLamento looks back to the first two acts – its maintheme is taken from the scene and duet between Cassandra and Coroebus in Act I,but at a much slower tempo the music now takes on the character of a funeral dirge, like a lament over the fall ofTroy and the fate of its people. But it also looks forward to what is to come.The phrase in the violins (bars 4-8), and again in the violas and cellos (bars 12-16),carries multiple echoes – it alludes to the first aria of Cassandra in Act I (Malheureuxroi), but also anticipates a theme prominent in Act III in the duet between Dido and her sisterAnna, then in Dido's monologue preceding the entry of the Trojans (Errantesur les mers). It also carries an echo of Dido's final recitative and ariain Act V in which she resolves to die after being abandoned by Aeneas (Inutile prièred'un cœur qui se déchire).
Cisco nexus gns3. 3Entrancesfrom Act III
These three orchestral pieces are part of the opening scenesof Act III, when Dido addresses the people of Carthage and celebrates theachievements of the city seven years after its foundation. As part of thefestivities processions of various trades — builders, sailors, farm-workers— come forward before the queen who presents them with symbolic gifts. Thoughshort all three pieces are exquisitely crafted and characterised, and addfurther variety and colour to the opening scenes. They form an integral part ofthe work and should never be omitted, but as Berlioz mentionsthey were cut from the first performances of Les Troyens à Carthage inNovember and December 1863 and this deplorable practice is sometimes followed inmodern performances.
Trojanmarch in the minor keyfrom Act III
This orchestral piece occurs later in Act III and accompaniesthe entrance of the Trojan refugees who have just arrived in Carthage and areintroduced before Dido. When it is first heard in the opera, at the conclusionof Act I, the Trojan March is in a bright major key (B flat), while here theminor key (also B flat) reflects the broken fortunes of the Trojan people afterthe fall of Troy and their flight overseas. The piece should be compared withthe orchestral version of the Trojan March whichis itself derived from the version of the march at the conclusion of Act I.
Note: the part of Dido in bars 16-21is omitted here.
Royal Hunt and Storm
This symphonic interlude comes between Acts III and IV of LesTroyens. The idea was suggested to Berlioz by a passage in Virgil's Aeneid(Book IV, lines 117-168), but as so often with Berlioz's use of literature formusic his treatment of the episode is very much his own and goes well beyond hisVirgilian original. The scene shows an African forest with a high rock at theback and the opening of a cave on the left; two naiads are seen bathing in apool nearby. This tranquil scene is interrupted by the sound of hunting hornsand the entrance of Trojan and Carthaginian hunters. A thunderstorm gathers, atthe climax of which Dido and Aeneas are seen entering the cave, while satyrs,fauns and sylvans perform grotesque dances and utter cries of 'Italie!'to remind Aeneas of his destiny. The storm gradually subsides and tranquility returns.
In Berlioz's hands, the Royal Hunt and Storm is much more than a magnificent piece of nature painting, remarkable as it isfor (among much else) its orchestration and the use of complex simultaneousrhythms. The storm is of course both literal and metaphorical: it represents therise and fall of the love of Dido and Aeneas. It is no accident that the openingchromatic phrase is found elsewhere in Berlioz in contexts which express theawakening of love – the opening of part II of Romeo and Juliet (Romeo'ssadness), or the aria of Beatrice in Act II of Beatrice and Benedict (Ilm'en souvient), which is quoted in the overture (bars 39-67, esp. the phrase at bars 47-51). The chromatic phrase of the introduction recurs in thesubsequent allegretto (bars 175-183, 201-3), then at theclimax of the storm (bars 266 and following) before gradually dying away, to bereplaced by a return of the diatonic theme heard in the introduction (bars 30and following, then bars 309 and following) and a final recall of the huntinghorns, but this time in a slower tempo.
Old frostwire. Older versions of FrostWire It's not uncommon for the latest version of an app to cause problems when installed on older smartphones. Sometimes newer versions of apps may not work with your device due to system incompatibilities. Until the app developer has fixed the problem, try using an older.
The concert version of the piece presented here containsthe same music as in the opera, but with a less elaborate orchestration (in theopera the hunting fanfares are given to off-stage brass bands); thechorus with its cries of 'Italie!' at the climax of the storm has alsobeen omitted.
Two technical points:
(1) In order to obtain the correct note values on playback ithas been necessary to notate a number of triplets and sextuplets in full and notin abbreviated form (bars 208-210, 212-13 for the piccolo; bars 266-8, 272-4 forviolins and violas; bars 284-298 for the violins; bars 295-9 for the violas).
(2) Berlioz's tempo marking for the quick section (starting atbar 44) is Allegretto, a marking he uses in different senses according to thecontext (see Hugh Macdonald in Berlioz Studies ed. Peter Bloom [1992],pages 35-6, though he does not discuss the Royal Hunt and Storm). Hegives a metronome mark of dotted crotchet = 112, which is brisker than in mostmodern performances. To enable the listener to judge, the piece is provided in two versions, the first with Berlioz's metronome marks(there is no problem with the opening larghetto),the second with a slower tempo for the Allegretto (here dotted crotchet = 100)which is close to modern performing practice. The first version involves a moreabrupt slowing down in the closing pages (from bar 284 onwards) in order tobring the tempo back to that of the opening larghetto, which seems required bythe context (bar 309 onwards).
Berlioz Les Troyens Boulez Ny Philharmonic
3 Ballets from Act IV
These 3 ballets come early inAct IV and accompany the celebrations held at Carthage after Aeneas' defeat ofthe hostile Numidian chieftain Iarbas. They were written towards the end of 1859and early in 1860, some time after the main body of the work which was composedin 1856-8. As well as containing fine and characteristic music, the ballets playan integral role in the work and are more than elegant concessions to theconventions of the Paris Opéra (for which Les Troyens was originallyintended). At the height of the festivities and the seeming happiness of Didoand Aeneas, the prevailing note of regret and loss struck by the music seems tohint at the tragedy that is to follow. There are also echoes that seemdeliberate. The first ballet alludes obliquely (bars 46-52 and 56-62) to Narbal'sforeboding in his aria at the start of the Act (De quels revers menaces-tuCarthage, sombre avenir?): key, time signature, melody, harmony, andinstrumental colour are similar (note the use of the trombones in thebackground). The same could be suggested for a passage in the second ballet(bars 65-82 and 92-100). The last ballet, in the exotic vein that Berlioz hadused previously in Part I of l'Enfance du Christ (cf. the dance of thesooth-sayers), is predominantly in the same key in which Act IV will end, when the interventionof the god Mercury shatters the dream of the two lovers and drags the music awayfrom the rarefied G flat major of the duet to the cold reality of E minor.
With this latter ballet may be compared the descriptiongiven by Berlioz (in Les Soirées de l'orchestre, XXIst soirée) of aperformance he heard in London in 1851, given by two Indian musicians to theaccompaniment of small drums: 'One of them sang, in some Indian dialect, apretty little melody in E minor, which only had a range of a sixth (from E toC); despite the quick tempo it was so sad, and conveyed such an impression ofsuffering, exile, slavery and despair, that on hearing it one was overcome withfeelings of nostalgia'.
On the ballets see also thearticle by Pierre-René Serna on this site.
Some technical points:
Ballet 1: the last repeat (bars 56-65) has beenwritten out in full to achieve the required dynamic contrast with the firststatement of the passage (Berlioz asks that the repeat should be played assoftly as possible).
Ballet 2: it is not clear what tempo Berlioz intendedfor this movement. The metronome mark given (crotchet = 122) is problematic intwo ways (cf. Hugh Macdonald in Berlioz Studies ed. Peter Bloom [1992],pages 22-3): the unit of time is given as a crotchet, not a dotted crotchet (orconceivably a quaver) as would be expected in a 6/8 time signature, and thefigure of 122 does not exist on the metronome scale available to Berlioz (thenearest figure is 120). Moreover, the tempo, though viable, is significantlyfaster than that adopted on the complete recordings of the work (for example by Sir ColinDavis and Charles Dutoit, both similar in speed). To our knowledge the onlyconductor to follow the printed metronome mark is Hermann Scherchen in his 1952recording of Les Troyens à Carthage. The piece has been presentedhere in two versions, the first as written by Berlioz, the second at a slightlyslower tempo (crotchet = 112). Since 112 is on the metronome scale it is justpossible that the figure of 122 is a mistake for it.
Ballet 3: there is no Midi sound for the ‘cymbalesantiques' which Berlioz uses here (as he did in the Queen Mab scherzo of Romeoand Juliet); the glockenspiel has been substituted.
Combatde Ceste (duration 1'20')
— Score in large format
(filecreated on 7.01.2000; revised 6.08.2001)
ActII Scene 1 (duration 6'24')
— Score in large format
(file created on 20.03.2001)
Lamentofor Les Troyens à Carthage (duration 4'18')
— Score in large format
(file created on 6.03.2001)
3 Entrancesfrom Act III:
Entranceof the builders (duration 1'9')
— Score in largeformat
Entranceof the sailors (duration 1'5')
— Score in largeformat
Entranceof the farm-workers (duration 1'32')
— Score in largeformat
(files created on 29.12.2001)
Trojanmarch in the minor key from Act III (duration 2'8')
— Score in largeformat
(file created on 1.01.2002)
RoyalHunt and Storm (1) with Berlioz's metronome mark for the Allegretto(duration 8'17')
— Score in large format
(filecreated on 26.10.2000; revised 11.12.2001)
RoyalHunt and Storm (2) with a slower tempo for the Allegretto (duration 8'47')
— Score in large format
(filecreated on 26.10.2000; revised 11.12.2001)
3Ballets from Act IV:
Ballet1 (duration 3'42')
— Score in large format
Ballet2 (a) with Berlioz's metronome mark (duration 3'58')
— Score in large format
Ballet2 (b) at a slower tempo (duration 4'20')
— Score in large format
Ballet3 (duration 1'26')
— Score in large format
(files created on 27.04.2001)
© Michel Austin for all scores and text on this page.
Backto Berlioz Music Scores
Berlioz's colossal masterpiece requires stupendous forces—dozens of soloists, enormous chorus, orchestra and ballet, a superb conductor who understands the uniqueness of the score—plus a production that does visual justice to the work. 'A stupendous achievement' was one critic's assessment of Peter Wexler's inventive production. And with James Levine's wizardry galvanizing the marvelous all-star cast, this is truly a gem. Plácido Domingo is the legendary hero Aeneas, Jessye Norman the obsessed prophetess Cassandra, and Tatiana Troyanos is Queen Dido, who commits suicide when Aeneas leaves her.
Full SynopsisPerformance Info
Performance Date
Oct 8, 1983
Composer
Hector Berlioz
Librettist
Hector Berlioz
Run Time
4 HRS 10 MIN
Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Chorus and Ballet
Cast & Creative
Berlioz Les Troyens
- Oct 8, 1983Hector BerliozHector Berlioz4 HRS 10 MIN
- James LevineJessye NormanTatiana TroyanosPlácido DomingoAllan Monk
