Berlioz - Les Troyens (CD + Bonus DVD)
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Label: Erato
Cat No: 9029576220
Format: CD + DVD
Number of Discs: 5
Genre: Opera
Release Date: 24th November 2017
Contents
Artists
Joyce DiDonatoMichael Spyres
Marie-Nicole Lemieux
Stephane Degout
Nicolas Courjal
Marianne Crebassa
Hanna Hipp
Cyrille Dubois
Stanislas de Barbeyrac
Philippe Sly
Choeur de l’Opera du Rhin
Badischer Staatsopernchor
Choeur philharmonique de Strasbourg
Orchestre philharmonique de Strasbourg
Conductor
John NelsonWorks
Les TroyensArtists
Joyce DiDonatoMichael Spyres
Marie-Nicole Lemieux
Stephane Degout
Nicolas Courjal
Marianne Crebassa
Hanna Hipp
Cyrille Dubois
Stanislas de Barbeyrac
Philippe Sly
Choeur de l’Opera du Rhin
Badischer Staatsopernchor
Choeur philharmonique de Strasbourg
Orchestre philharmonique de Strasbourg
Conductor
John NelsonAbout
This new Erato recording of the complete, uncut score of Les Troyens is drawn from two concert performances that took place over the Easter weekend in April 2017 in the city of Strasbourg in eastern France. A magnificent cast of singers, predominantly Francophone, assembled under the baton of John Nelson, an acknowledged master of Berlioz’s music who has conducted Les Troyens more frequently than anyone else over a period of more than 40 years; he made his name with the piece when he led performances at New York’s Metropolitan Opera in 1974 and enjoyed great acclaim for a production at the Frankfurt Opera shortly before the Strasbourg concerts.
Cast:
- Enée: Michael Spyres
- Chorèbe / Spectre de Chorèbe: Stéphane Degout
- Panthée: Philippe Sly
- Narbal: Nicolas Courjal
- Iopas: Cyrille Dubois
- Ascagne: Marianne Crebassa
- Cassandre / Spectre de Cassandre: Marie-Nicole Lemieux
- Didon: Joyce DiDonato
- Anna: Hanna Hipp
- Hélénus / Hylas: Stanislas de Barbeyrac
- Priam / Spectre de Priam: Bertrand Grunenwald
- Un soldat / Chef Grec: Richard Rittelmann
- Ombre d’Hector / Spectre d’Hector / Mercure: Jean Teitgen
- Sentinelle I: Jérôme Varnier
- Sentinelle II: Frédéric Caton
- Hécube: Agnieszka Slawinska
Bonus DVD: Highlights from live concert 15 April 2017
Sound/Video
Paused
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1Act 1 - Ha! Ha! Apres dix ans passe dans nos murailles
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2Act 1 - Malheureux roi!
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3Act 1 - Dieux protecteurs de la ville eternelle
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4Act 1 - Chatiment effroyable!
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5Act 1 - Du roi des dieux, o fille aimee
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6Act 2 - Complices de sa gloire
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7Act 2 - Cassandre, avec toi nous mourrons!
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8Act 3 - De Carthage les cieux semblent benir la fete!
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9Act 3 - Gloire a Didon, notre reine cherie!
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10Act 3 - Chers Tyriens, tant de nobles travaux
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11Act 3 - Reine, je suis Enee!
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12Act 3 - Annonce a nos Troyens l'entreprise nouvelle
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13Act 3 - Des armes! des armes!
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14Act 4 - Chasse royale et orage: Pantomime
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15Act 4 - Ballet: Pas d'Esclaves nubiennes
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16Act 4 - O blonde Ceres
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17Act 4 - Mais bannissons ces tristes souvenirs
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18Act 4 - Nuit d'ivresse et d'extase infinie!
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19Act 5 - Vallon sonore
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20Act 5 - Inutiles regrets!
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21Act 5 - Ah! quand viendra l'instant des supremes adieux
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22Act 5 - Errante sur tes pas
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23Act 5 - Ah! Ah! Je vais mourir
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24Act 5 - Adieu, fiere cite
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25Act 5 - Rome... Rome... immortelle!
Europadisc Review
Nelson is without peer in Les Troyens: since making his New York City debut with an uncut performance of Berlioz’s score in 1973, it is the work with which he has been most associated, and he made his professional conducting debut at the Met on a day’s notice, standing in for an indisposed Rafael Kubelík. And shortly before these Strasbourg performances, he conducted a production for Oper Frankfurt with a completely different cast. Nelson’s vast experience on the work is evident in every bar: he gets deep into the textures of Berlioz’s style, idiosyncrasies and all, and the whole is faultlessly paced, with just the right degree of urgency to keep the piece together, and the four-hour span feeling not a moment too long.
Les Troyens’ vast canvas recounts the story from Virgil’s Aeneid of the flight of Aeneas and fellow Trojan survivors from the fall of Troy, their fateful stay in Carthage, and their eventual departure for Italy, where Aeneas’s descendants will eventually found Rome. It shows the effects of nation-building on individuals both high and low, encompassed by the overarching impetus of fate. Similarly, a range of operatic influences, from Rameau and Gluck to Spontini and French grand opera, can be traced in the score, which is held together by a heady mixture of Virgilian and Shakespearean poetry in the composer’s own libretto, and a uniquely Berlioz-ian Romanticism.
No other great opera, save perhaps Mussorgsky’s Khovanshchina, has such a crucial role for the chorus, and Nelson has at his disposal the combined forces of the Strasbourg Philharmonic Chorus, the choirs of the Opéra national du Rhin, and the chorus of the Badische Staatsoper, Karlsruhe, where the belated first staging of the opera (across two successive evenings) took place in 1890. The choral singing is hugely committed and dynamic, from the softest pianissimo to the loudest fortissimo, from the grandiose public scenes to the tormented cries at the end of Act 2, more than making up for the physical staticness of a concert format.
The solo cast is uniformly excellent and likewise largely Francophone, with two crucial exceptions in mezzo Joyce DiDonato and tenor Michael Spyres. You could say that DiDonato was fated to sing the role of Didon; that happy confluence of names apart, her performance surpasses that of her rivals on disc, and is one of her finest achievements to date. Her lightness of timbre brings a palpable vulnerability to the role, and her singing has an intense brilliance, resulting in a powerfully moving final scene as she prophesies the rise of Rome. She is matched in tonal refinement by of Michael Spyres, for whom the often high-lying part of Aeneas seems to present no challenges. His vocal colouring is a world away from the heroically dark yet ultimately unidiomatic style of Vickers (for Davis in 1969) but, like DiDonato, he successfully emphasises the fundamental humanity of the character, even when consumed by his noble public duty.
The opera’s other protagonist, in Acts 1 and 2, is the doomed Trojan princess Cassandra, who foresees the fall of Troy as well as the eventual founding of Rome. Here the part is taken by the Canadian contralto Marie-Nicole Lemieux, and she dominates the first part of the work with a performance of gleaming intensity, one of the finest accounts of this role on disc. All the other solo characters are taken with distinction, chief among them Marianne Crebassa as Ascanius (surely a Didon in waiting?), Stéphane Degout as Coroebus, and Hanna Hipp as Dido’s sister Anna. You don’t need to read Nelson’s booklet note to recognise the marvellous sense of collegiality that exists between the singers: much more than just a star vehicle, this is a tremendous team achievement by all involved, every minor character contributing to the overall impact.
That applies equally to the superb Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra, whom Nelson coaxes to a performance of spellbinding involvement and tonal subtlety. Berlioz’s score thrives on contrast, from the monumental to the pictorial, the violent to the calm, the grandiose to the intimate, and also on rhythmic vitality. Under Nelson, the orchestra is alive to all these nuances, from the great set-pieces of Acts 1 and 3, to the glowing evocation of nature in the Royal Hunt and Storm that opens Act 4 (complete with very French sounding saxhorns). Moments like the appearance to Aeneas of the ghosts of Priam, Coroebus, Hector and Cassandra have a spine-tingling quality that leaps off the page. Above all, the playing imparts to the opera as a whole that truly heroic temper that is its essence.
This is now surely the new benchmark recording of Les Troyens – one that does full justice to both the letter and the spirit of Berlioz’s masterpiece with immensely stylish performances from all involved. It is attractively packaged, with a substantial essay by Christian Wasselin and complete libretto, plus a bonus DVD of generous highlights from the concert performance, all at a highly competitive price. Even if you already have one or more of the classic recordings from the past, this new arrival must be a compulsory purchase, utterly enthralling from first note to last. And if you have none but have always wondered what all the fuss is about, there’s no better way to take the plunge into Berlioz’s unique vision of this ageless story.
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