1/ Berlioz determined to set Books II-IV of The Aeneid. Book II becomes Acts 1&2 (La Prise de Troie) and Bks III & IV become Acts 3-5 (Les Troyens à Carthage). Together they are LES TROYENS. The gargantuan-ness of it provokes comparison to Wagner, esp. his GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG,
https://twitter.com/MetOpera/status/1339345219335016448
2/ which we will see later this week Thus equals in mammothosity, Berlioz may compete w Wagner on getting there first and win (1858), or on music and dramaturgy, and IMO *not* win. I’ve tried w Berlioz since I first listened to his DAMNATION DE FAUST a *long* time ago
3/ and i still don’t get what’s out of the ordinary about it, and the dramatic pace in TROYENS is, IMO, glacial. Maybe epic poetry doesn’t translate well to the stage: while there have been great plays and operas based on stories within Homer, and within Dante (yo, FRANCESCA DA
4/ RIMINI coming up tomorrow night!! 🤗😍), no one has successfully put on stage nearly half of a bona fide epic (as Berlioz attempts here). Yes, *of course*, if I listen to it a lot I’ll get to know it and there4 to like it. That’s true of any opera able to get itself staged.
5/ The difference with e.g. Wagner is that I only had to put DIE WALKÜRE on the stereo once, when I was six, and I was hooked. Great musical storytelling can, if given a chance, captivate even a little kid. I have TROYENS on now and it’s not musical storytelling on that level.
6/ OTOH it’s not musical storytelling on *no* level either, so you may want to look in on it as I’m doing. You’ll never see it better cast than w Deborah Voigt as Cassandre, Bryan Hymel as Enée, Susan Graham as Didon, Francesca Zambello directing, and Fabio Luisi conducting.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
