Customer Reviews

Berlioz: Les Troyens

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First off, note that Amazon seems to be missing the information that this is a three-disc set, not two; the track listings shown are for discs two and three. Disc one contains Act I of "La Prise de Troie."
I bought this a while ago because Eleanor Steber is one of my favorite singers and anything she did is bound to be interesting. "Les Troyens" to me requires as much concentration as one of the major Wagner operas so it was a while before I had the inclination to listen to this in detail. I find it to be an excellent performance on many counts, not the least of which is my admiration for what the performers had to put up with. As detailed in the booklet, the American Opera Society had engaged Sir Thomas Beecham to conduct the complete work in two parts, with separate performances of "La prise de Troie" and "Les Troyens a Carthage" scheduled in New York, Philadelphia and Washington DC during December 1959 and January 1960. Beecham's behavior as described sounds like he didn't really want to be there, and he skipped most of the rehearsals and some of the performances.It must have been stressful for the performers, who I am guessing had been anticipating working with the famed English conductor and must have been dismayed by his boorish behavior and his last-minute withdrawal from several of the performances. The performances including the ones from Dec.29,1969 and Jan.12,1960 preserved in this set are from the New York run and were conducted by Robert Lawrence, who had done the musical preparation. The Philadelphia performances were cancelled and there were various logistical hardships but you would never know it from the result.
Much as I love Steber, Cassandra is not the most congenial role for her and it does not play to her strengths. Less-than-top drawer Steber is still plenty good so I doubt her fans will be disappointed but I wouldn't blame anyone for searching out other renditions of this role. Resnik does a fine job as Dido, but the real surprise for me was the Aeneas of Richard Cassily. I had only heard him in heavy Germanic or character roles like Tannhauser or the "Wozzeck" Drum Major and had always thought of him as a beefy belter. Here his youthful voice is in great shape and he handles the killer role of Aeneas admirably; perhaps his instrument was another of those lyric voices ruined by overparting.Lawrence does a good job with the orchestra, including an exciting "Royal Hunt and Storm." There are cuts which bring the whole opera in at around 196 minutes, about 40 minutes shorter than the complete recordings of Davis (Philips), Dutoit (Decca) or Levine (DGG DVD).
To sum up, I find this a very credible entry in the "Troyens" sweepstakes, which might serve many as a first choice if you're not obsessed about having every last note. At the very least, it's a fine memoir of three excellent singers and a project which I am guessing was one of the first hearings of the more-or-less complete score in the US. I wish I could have been there.