Lucas Meachem & Christine Goerke in Les Troyens Photo: Todd Rosenberg Photography
BERLIOZ: Les Troyens
Sunday 3 November 2019 at 6.00pm on RNZ Concert
Cast:
Christine Goerke (Cassandre), Susan Graham (Didon), Brandon Jovanovich (Énée), Lucas Meachem (Chorèbe), Christian Van Horn (Narbal), Okka von der Damerau (Anna), Chorus & Orchestra of Chicago Lyric Opera conducted by Sir Andrew Davis
Recorded in the Lyric Opera House, Chicago by WFMT
A scene from Les Troyens at Chicago Lyric Opera Photo: Todd Rosenberg Photography
The drama of the Trojan War, replete with heroes and tragedy, has captivated audiences from literature to film, and nowhere does it come to life more vividly than in French opera’s most astounding work, Les Troyens.
Grand and glorious in its musical and dramatic breadth, this operatic retelling of Virgil’s Aeneid is rarely performed because of its enormous scale.
Christine Goerke in Les Troyens Photo: Todd Rosenberg Photography
The Story:
Part 1: The Taking of Troy
The city of Troy after ten years of siege.
The Greeks’ siege of Troy seems to have ended after ten years when they leave an enormous wooden horse, apparently as a parting gift, but the Trojan princess Cassandra prophesies disaster. She is proven correct: Greek soldiers emerge from the horse and wreak catastrophe on what remains of the city. The women of Troy join Cassandra in committing suicide rather than submit to the Greeks. The hero Aeneas escapes, ready to fulfill his destiny by founding a new Troy in Italy.
A scene from Les Troyens at Chicago Lyric Opera Photo: Todd Rosenberg Photography
Part 2: The Trojans at Carthage
The newly built city of Carthage.
Aeneas and his men lead Carthage’s army to victory in battle. Queen Dido of Carthage and Aeneas fall in love, but their idyll ends when the hero realises that fate is too strong: he must leave for Italy. The despairing Dido mounts a funeral pyre and, after proclaiming the coming of a Carthaginian general (Hannibal) who will avenge her, she stabs herself with Aeneas’s sword. She dies envisioning Carthage’s eventual destruction at the hands of Rome, as her people curse Aeneas and his descendants.
Susan Graham & Brandon Jovanovich in Les Troyens Photo: Todd Rosenberg Photography
