Les Troyens

Les Troyens (pronounced [le tʁwajɛ̃]; in English: The Trojans) is a French grand opera in five acts, running for about five hours, by Hector Berlioz. The libretto was written by Berlioz himself from Virgil's epic poem the Aeneid; the score was composed between 1856 and 1858. Les Troyens is Berlioz's most ambitious work, the summation of his entire artistic career, but he did not live to see it performed in its entirety. Under the title Les Troyens à Carthage, the last three acts were premièred with many cuts by Léon Carvalho's company, the Théâtre Lyrique, at their theatre (now the Théâtre de la Ville) on the Place du Châtelet in Paris on 4 November 1863, with 21 repeat performances. The reduced versions run for about three hours. After decades of neglect, today the opera is considered by some music critics as one of the finest ever written.

Berlioz began the libretto on 5 May 1856 and completed it toward the end of June 1856. He finished the full score on 12 April 1858. Berlioz had a keen affection for literature, and he had admired Virgil since his childhood. The Princess Carolyne zu Sayn-Wittgenstein was a prime motivator to Berlioz to compose this opera.

"At that time I had completed the dramatic work I mentioned earlier ..Four years earlier I happened to be in Weimar at the home of Princess Wittgenstein – a devoted friend of Liszt, and a woman of character and intelligence who has often given me support in my darkest hours. I was led to talk of my admiration for Virgil and of the idea I had formed of a great opera, designed on Shakespearean lines, for which Books Two and Four of the Aeneid would provide the subject-matter. I added that I was all too aware of the pain that such an undertaking would inevitably cause me ever to embark on it. 'Indeed,' the princess replied, 'the conjunction of your passion for Shakespeare and your love of antiquity must result in the creation of something grand and novel. You must write this opera, this lyric poem; call it what you like and plan it as you wish. You must start work on it and bring it to completion.' As I persisted in my refusal: 'Listen,' said the princess, 'if you shrink before the hardships that it is bound to cause you, if you are so weak as to be afraid of the work and will not face everything for the sake of Dido and Cassandra, then never come back here, for I do not want to see you ever again.' This was more than enough to decide me. Once back in Paris I started to write the lines for the poem of Les Troyens. Then I set to work on the score, and after three and a half years of corrections, changes, additions etc., everything was finished. [I polished] the work over and over again, after giving numerous readings of the poem in different places, listening to the comments made by various listeners and benefiting from them to the best of my ability ... ."

On 3 May 1861, Berlioz wrote in a letter: "I am sure that I have written a great work, greater and nobler than anything done hitherto." Elsewhere he wrote: "The principal merit of the work is, in my view, the truthfulness of the expression." For Berlioz, truthful representation of passion was the highest goal of a dramatic composer, and in this respect he felt he had equalled the achievements of Gluck and Mozart.

In his memoirs, Berlioz described in excruciating detail the intense frustrations he experienced in seeing the work performed. For five years (from 1858 to 1863), the Paris Opéra – the only suitable stage in Paris – vacillated. Finally, tired of waiting, he agreed to let Léon Carvalho, director of the smaller Théâtre Lyrique, mount a production of the second half of the opera with the title Les Troyens à Carthage. It consisted of Acts 3 to 5, redivided by Berlioz into five acts, to which he added an orchestral introduction (Lamento) and a prologue. As Berlioz noted bitterly, he agreed to let Carvalho do it "despite the manifest impossibility of his doing it properly. He had just obtained an annual subsidy of a hundred thousand francs from the government. Nonetheless the enterprise was beyond him. His theater was not large enough, his singers were not good enough, his chorus and orchestra were small and weak."

Even with this truncated version of the opera, many compromises and cuts were made, some during rehearsals, and some during the run. The new second act was the Chasse Royale et Orage ("Royal Hunt and Storm") [no. 29], an elaborate pantomime ballet with nymphs, sylvans and fauns, along with a chorus. Since the set change for this scene took nearly an hour, it was cut, despite the fact its staging had been greatly simplified with a painted waterfall backdrop rather than one with real water. Carvalho had originally planned to divert water from the nearby Seine, but during the rehearsals, a faulty switch nearly caused a disaster. The entries of the builders, sailors, and farm-workers [nos. 20–22], were omitted because Carvalho found them dull; likewise, the scene for Anna and Narbal [nos. 30–31] and the second ballet [no. 33b]. The sentries' duet [no. 40] was omitted, because Carvalho had found its "homely style... out of place in an epic work". Iopas's stanzas [no. 25] disappeared with Berlioz's approval, the singer De Quercy "charged with the part being incapable of singing them well." The duet between Didon and Énée [no. 44] was cut because, as Berlioz himself realized, "Madame Charton's voice was unequal to the vehemence of this scene, which took so much out of her that she would not have had the strength left to deliver the tremendous recitative Dieux immortels! il part! [no. 46], the final aria [Adieu, fière cité, no. 48], and the scene on the pyre [nos. 50–52]." The "Song of Hylas" [no. 38], which was "greatly liked at the early performances and was well sung", was cut while Berlioz was at home sick with bronchitis. The singer of the part, Edmond Cabel, was also performing in a revival of Félicien David's La perle du Brésil, and since his contract only required him to sing fifteen times per month, he would have to be paid an extra two hundred francs for each additional performance. Berlioz lamented: "If I am able to put on an adequate performance of a work of this scale and character I must be in absolute control of the theatre, as I am of the orchestra when I rehearse a symphony."

Even in its less than ideal form, the work made a profound impression. For example, Giacomo Meyerbeer attended 12 performances. Berlioz's son Louis attended every performance. A friend tried to console Berlioz for having endured so much in the mutilation of his magnum opus and pointed out that after the first night audiences were increasing. "See," he said encouragingly to Berlioz, "they are coming." "Yes," replied Berlioz, feeling old and worn out, "they are coming, but I am going." Berlioz never saw the first two acts, later given the name La prise de Troie ("The Capture of Troy").

After the premiere of the second part at the Théâtre Lyrique, portions of the opera were next presented in concert form. Two performances of La prise de Troie were given in Paris on the same day, 7 December 1879: one by the Concerts Pasdeloup at the Cirque d'Hiver with Anne Charton-Demeur as Cassandre, Stéphani as Énée, conducted by Ernest Reyer; and another by the Concerts Colonne at the Théâtre du Châtelet with Leslino as Cassandre, Piroia as Énée, conducted by Edouard Colonne. These were followed by two concerts in New York: the first, Act 2 of La prise de Troie, was performed in English on 6 May 1882 by Thomas's May Festival at the 7th Regiment Armory with Amalie Materna as Cassandre, Italo Campanini as Énée, conducted by Theodore Thomas; the second, Les Troyens à Carthage (with cuts), was given in English on 26 February 1887 at Chickering Hall with Marie Gramm as Didon, Max Alvary as Énée, and possibly conducted by Frank Van der Stucken.