Les Troyens - Performance History

Performance History

While the Grand Opéra in Paris performed both "halves" of the unwillingly severed work at various times between 1899 and 1919, the company did not produce the complete Les Troyens, in one evening as Berlioz had conceived it, until 10 June 1921, with mise-en-scène by Merle-Forest, sets by René Piot and costumes by Dethomas. Philippe Gaubert conducted. The cast included Marguerite Gonzategui (Didon), Lucy Isnardon (Cassandre), Jeanne Laval (Anna), Paul Franz (Énée), Édouard Rouard (Chorèbe), and Armand Narçon (Narbal).

Marisa Ferrer, who would later sing the part under Sir Thomas Beecham in London, sang Didon in the 1929 revival, with Germaine Lubin as Cassandre and again Franz as Énée. Georges Thill sang Énée in 1930.

In 1935, Les Troyens was first performed outside of France by Glasgow Grand Opera Society. This complete version of Berlioz's work was directed by Scottish composer Erik Chisholm.

Lucienne Anduran was Didon in the 1939 revival, with Ferrer as Cassandre this time, José de Trévi as Énée, and Martial Singher, later a long-time favourite at the Metropolitan Opera, as Chorèbe. Gaubert conducted all performances before the Second World War.

The Paris Opéra gave a new production of the complete Les Troyens on March 17, 1961, directed by Margherita Wallmann, with sets and costumes by Piero Zuffi. Pierre Dervaux was the conductor. Régine Crespin sang Didon, with Geneviève Serrès as Cassandre, Jacqueline Broudeur as Anna, Guy Chauvet as Énée, Robert Massard as Chorèbe and Georges Vaillant as Narbal. Air-checks are extant of performances by this cast from broadcasts made by the French National Radio. Several of these artists, in particular Crespin and Chauvet, participated in a set of extended highlights commercially recorded by EMI in 1965, Georges Prêtre conducting.

In the UK, J.A. Westrup recalled concert performances of Les Troyens à Carthage in 1897 and 1928, as well as a complete staging in Glasgow in 1935. The distinction of performing Les Troyens for the first time in London belongs to Sir Thomas Beecham, who led a concert performance of the complete opera broadcast over the BBC in 1947. His cast included Ferrer as both Didon and Cassandre, Jean Giraudoux as Énée, and baritone Charles Cambon as both Chorèbe (a role he had sung in Paris as part of the alternate 1929 cast) and Narbal. An aircheck of this performance exists and has been issued on CD. However, the 1957 production at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden conducted by Rafael Kubelík and directed by John Gielgud, has been described as "the first full staging in a single evening that even approximated the composer's original intentions". (A curious comment, considering that this production used an English adaptation by Edward J. Dent of Berlioz' French-language libretto.)

The musical details and performing editions of Les Troyens used at various productions at the Paris Opéra and by Sir Thomas Beecham and by Rafael Kubelík in London were all the same, the orchestral and choral parts from Choudens et Cie. of Paris, the only edition then available. The score made available by Bärenreiter from its Critical Edition, first published in 1969, was used by Colin Davis in his 1969 Covent Garden production, recorded by Philips.

The first American stage performance of Les Troyens (an abbreviated version, sung in English) was given by Boris Goldovsky with the New England Opera Theater on March 27, 1955, in Boston. San Francisco Opera staged a heavily cut version of the opera (reducing it to about 3 hours), billed as the “American professional stage premiere,” in 1966, with French soprano Régine Crespin as both Cassandra and Dido and Canadian tenor Jon Vickers as Aeneas, and again in 1968 with Ms. Crespin and Guy Chauvet; Jean Périsson conducted all performances. The first complete American production of Les Troyens was given in February 1972 by Sarah Caldwell with her Opera Company of Boston, at the Aquarius Theater. In 1973, Rafael Kubelík conducted the first Metropolitan Opera staging of Les Troyens, in the opera's first performances in New York City and the third staging in the United States. Shirley Verrett was both the Cassandre and the Didon at the Metropolitan Opera premiere, with Jon Vickers as Énée.

Les Troyens was staged again in 1990 for the opening of the new Bastille Opéra in Paris. It was a partial success, because the new theatre could not be quite ready on opening night, which caused much trouble during rehearsals. The performance had several cuts, authorised, willingly or not, by Berlioz, including some dances in the third act. To mark the bicentenary of Berlioz's birth in 2003, Les Troyens was revived in productions at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris (conducted by John Eliot Gardiner), Amsterdam (conducted by Edo de Waart), and at the Metropolitan Opera (with the American mezzo-soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson as Dido, conducted by James Levine).