| Les Troyens |
| Written from 1856 to 1858 Les Troyens was Berlioz’s largest and most ambitious work, and the summation of his entire artistic career. Its origins go back to his childhood and his reading of Virgil’s Aeneid under his father’s instruction, as he recalls in his Memoirs (chapter 2). Thereafter Virgil was never far from his thoughts - citations from the Roman poet abound throughout his writings, and notably in his correspondence. The trip to Italy in 1831-2 gave Berlioz the opportunity to visit some of the places associated with Virgil's epic. The great work thus matured in his mind for many years before he eventually undertook to write it, after much hesitation, as he recalls in his Memoirs. It represented the convergence of a multiplicity of influences, literary and musical. On the literary side Berlioz ascribed a major part to Shakespeare’s influence in addition to that of Virgil. On the musical side the major influences were those of Gluck and Spontini. For Berlioz the composition of Les Troyens represented thus in many ways a return to his roots. - Source |
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| Roles Priam, King of Troy/Ghost of Priam bass Hécube (Hecuba), Queen of Troy soprano Cassandre (Cassandra), their daughter, a Trojan prophetess)/Ghost of Cassandre mezzo-soprano Helenus, their son, a Trojan priest tenor Polyxène (Polyxena), their daughter soprano Chorèbe (Coroebus), a young prince from Asia, betrothed to Cassandra/Ghost of Chorèbe baritone Énée (Aeneas), Trojan hero, son of Venus and Anchises tenor Ascagne (Ascanius), his son soprano Panthée (Panthous), a Trojan priest bass Ghost of Hector, a Trojan hero, son of Priam and Hécube bass Andromaque (Andromache), his widow silent Astyanax, son of Hector and Andromaque silent A Greek captain bass Didon (Dido), Queen of Carthage,widow of Sychaeus mezzo-soprano Anna, sister of Dido contralto Narbal, minister to Dido bass Iopas, Tyrian poet at Dido's court tenor Hylas, a young Phrygian sailor tenor Mercure (Mercury), a God bass Two Trojan soldiers baritone, bass |