Troyens
Troyens is an opera in five acts of Hector Berlioz on a booklet of the type-setter, inspired of Énéide of Virgile.
The failure of Benvenuto Cellini in 1838 pushed Berlioz to seek other forms of expression that the opera. It will be necessary to wait almost twenty years so that it writes some another, thorough in that by the friend of Franz Liszt, the princess Carolyne de Sayn-Wittgenstein.
Work made up between 1856 and 1858, Troyens had large problems to be gone up. The opera had to be divided into two unequal parts, the Catch of Troy , one hour and half, and Troyens with Carthage , two hours and half. Berlioz saw of alive sound only this last part, represented with Theater-Lyric of Paris on November 4th, 1863. The first part will be given in version of concert in 1879. The almost complete integral was given for the first time to Karslruhe December 6th and 7th 1890. Among the reasons called upon for division count the length of work (four hours) although certain operas of Wagner reach this duration, and the importance of the means implemented, with the famous horse but also orchestral and choraux manpower. At the time of the repetitions which will lead to the first representation, the originality of the partition had décontenancé the interpreters, with whom it directing of the theater, Carvalho, had in addition left little time in order to be able to return more quickly in his expenses. Work Troyens with Carthage did not meet the failure; she is even criticized very positively by Clément and Larousse in the Dictionnaire of the operas of 1905, with the article entitled paradoxically “Troyens” whereas it is yet only about the Carthaginian episode.
The first Parisian date of 1921 only, but in a shortened version. The first true integral in only one evening is that given in 1957 in Covent Garden in London. It was followed recording of 1969 fact by Colin Davis, edition which still currently remains of reference (even if the more complete version of Charles Dutoit left in 1994, by integrating the prelude of the Troyens to Carthage placed at the beginning of act III).
The principal feminine role is, with acts I and II, Cassandre and, with the acts III, IV and V, Didon. Often, at the time of the representations, the same singer sings the two roles. That was the case of Régine Crespin of which there remains a disc of extracts recorded in 1965 pennies the direction of Georges Prêtre. The fifth act is also called the act of Didon; divided into three tables, it contains the monolog Ah, ah, I will die and air Good-bye, proud city at the end of the second table. The death of Didon and its imprécations against Rome are among the most famous pages of the opera.
The principal masculine role is that of Énée, of which the entry, Of the people and soldiers , is one of most spectacular repertory: the tenor arrives while running and tells the death of Laocoon by singing a sentence with demanding tessiture. Its duet with Didon with act IV, Harms of infinite intoxication and extase , is the piece which was greeted the most, and this as of the first representations.
Hector and Andromaque appears both in an original way in the opera. Andromaque appears with his/her son Astyanax during act I, for a mime while the chorus sings. Hector as for him appears in the shape of a spectrum in the first table of act II; it engages Énée starting from Troy and to found Rome ( Ah! … flee, Venus wire ).
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