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Music
Hector Berlioz
Company
English
National Opera
Conductor
Paul Daniel
Conductor
Dominic Wheeler
Director
Richard Jones
Design
Stewart Laing
Lighting
Wolfgang Gobbel
Choreographer
Philippe Giraudeau
Translation
Hugh Macdonal
Performers
Cassandra
Susan Bickle
Aeneas
John Dasza
Ascanius
Victoria Simmond
Hecuba
Ethna Robinso
Coroebus
Robert Poulto
Ghost of Hector
Pavlo Hunk
Priam
Gerard O'Conno
Pantheus
Iain Paterso
Helenus
Colin Lee
Greek Captain
Barry Martin
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London
Coliseum
English
National Opera
27
January - 27 February 2003
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English
National Opera's ambitious
aim to stage a complete Ring
at the same time as a complete
performance of Berlioz's Trojans
came closer to reality on
Monday 27th January with the
opening of the first part
The
Capture of Troy ,
the first two acts of Berlioz's
five-act epic masterpiece
Les
Troyens.
The stylish English translation
is by the eminent Berlioz
scholar Professor Hugh Macdonald,
a notable example of the brain-drain
to the States.
Berlioz's magnificent opera,
by which he set great store,
has had an unfortunate performance
history. Berlioz himself saw
only a fraction of it performed
in his lifetime, and since
then it has appeared in the
theatre only sporadically.
This neglect is as much because
critics and impresarios think
of the work as almost too
massive to be staged, though
the same are happy to have
abandoned such a criticism
of, for instance, G–tterd”mmerung.
Happily there have been some
fine live performances (staged
and concert), most memorably
for London audiences around
Berlioz's centenary, and there
is at least one outstanding
recording on Philips by Sir
Colin Davis and a host of
magnificent singers with the
Royal Opera House chorus and
orchestra.
The story of the Trojans
is the sack of Troy, the diaspora
of the Greek and Trojan princes
and their stories ending finally
in the founding of Rome by
the Trojan Aeneas, who arrived
in Italy by divine command
and by way of a notorious
love-affair in northern Africa
with Queen Dido. Berlioz had
been fascinated with these
events since, according to
him, as a child he had wept
over the narration of Dido
and Aeneas in the fourth volume
of Virgil's great epic the
Aeneid. The gestation of the
opera thus took a long time
and probably many transformations,
but at heart it remains an
epic telling of an epic story
that blends the classic grandeur
of Berlioz's beloved Gluck
with more modern passions
and gestures. Even so it is
not quite like Berlioz's more
nerve-tingling masterpieces
such as the tomb scene in
Romeo and Juliet or the finale
of the Symphonie fantastique.
It has a measure of classic
distance, it is not so 'engagé'
and this may be another reason
why it has not achieved the
popularity its indisputable
mastery would justify.
The
Capture of Troy
is conducted by Paul Daniel
and directed by Richard Jones.
Neither seemed at their best.
The music, which should have
a dramatic verve and deft
handling of colour seemed
all too often too carefully
paced, too cautious with the
result the sense of dramatic
forward movement seemed sometimes
missing. A first night is
not always a good one to judge,
so as the performance works
its way in this may all change
and what seemed haltingly
repressed may come to fruition.
It deserves too as all the
elements for a first-class
performance were there, though
not as yet quite being welded
together to make an overpowering
whole.
The music will need to be
good as the production is
highly confusing. Realism,
such as the model horse (inevitably
a bit pantomimic) is mingled
with curiously confusing modern
messages. The dress is nearly
contemporary, and the setting
to judge from the backdrop
is a 'modern city', but quite
why the women of Troy who
commit mass-suicide at the
end of the second act should
be set in the upper-storey
of the local radio station
is a mystery to me. As they
throw themselves form the
colonnades in the original
scenario they leap with the
word 'Italy' on their lips:
a highly dramatic and comprehensible
action. I wondered whether
the radio station was a modern
equivalent of a last ditch
broadcast to their flaming
city symbolizing that out
of the flames a phoenix would
arise in the form of Rome.
But the mixture of metaphors
and similes was too confusing
and detracted from the power
of the opera.
Berlioz chose to elevate the
ill-fated Cassandra to chief
protagonist in the Capture
of Troy
and she is magnificently portrayed
by Susan Bickley. The role
is described as a soprano
role, but to characterize
her the singer needs some
mezzo-tones to give the weight
to the role Cassandra needs.
This Susan Bickley has in
abundance, and her performance
scorched off the stage making
you forget that she dressed
as a middle-aged secretary
despite being about to wed.
Aeneas, the hero with a divine
mission who is fated to leave
with the Trojan gods to found
Rome, is in the Capture
of Troy
rather passive role. His most
significant appearance is
in his tent when he is visited
by the ghost of Hector, the
slaughtered Trojan hero. John
Daszak conveys both vocally
and visually this hero whose
eventual task is to abandon
his doomed homeland, but who
makes one last ditch attempt
to defend his city against
the overpowering Greek forces,
now within the walls of Troy.
Apart from the strong cast
of principal singers and great
choral singing, one the most
compelling parts of the performance
were the dancers. Dancing
was always an important part
of French opera and on occasions
has been its dramatic downfall.
But with the imaginative choreographer,
as Philippe Giraudeau was
here, it can be made to articulate
in gesture what is lacking
in design or direction.
It would be nice to recommend
an all too rare performance
of the Capture
of Troy
with unreserved enthusiasm,
but this is not quite possible.
Many elements are there and
maybe soon it will take off,
but in these initial stages
its faltering pace and confusing
settings undermine the sterling
efforts of the cast to make
this a deeply memorable occasion.
Roderick
Swanston |
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