LES TROYENS

All peace is followed by war, behind all happiness awaits disaster. Tragedy also shares this universal view, and in his grand opera “Les Troyens”, Hector Berlioz presents it in the face of two women: Cassandra and Dido lose their personal happiness, as it has no place in the struggle between the peoples and heroes, and ultimately lose their life. In the first part of “The Trojans” the seeress Cassandra proclaims the fall of Troy. Being the only one to do so, none believe her. With her entire people, she falls victim to the Greeks’ stratagem. In the second part, Berlioz puts Dido, Queen of Carthage, at the centre of the piece. Her love for the Trojan hero Aeneas turns to hate when he leaves her to found a new Troy.

Berlioz wrote the libretto loosely based on Vergil’s Aeneid. He went his own way with the music, which was never performed in its entirety while the composer lived, to produce grand opéra, spectacular choirs and ballets, along with new form experiments. Les Troyens remains a challenge for musical theatre to this day, and is indeed one of the monumental conceptual pieces of the previous century.