DVD Oct 2004
BUY: Amazon
Susan Graham, Anna Caterina Antonacci, Gregory Kunde, Ludovic Tézier, Laurent Naouri, Nicolas Testé
Sir John Eliot Gardiner, conductor
Peter Maniura, director
Recorded at the Teatre du Chatelet
Studio: Opus Arte
DVD Release Date: October 19, 2004
Berlioz’s grand opera Les Troyens received its premiere performance at the Théâtre Lyrique in 1863 in a heavily cut version which only featured the last three acts set in Carthage. Berlioz never saw it performed and, due to its epic scale and the forces required to perform it, Troyens was never staged complete as the composer intended. In terms of artistic ambition Les Troyens follows in the footsteps of Rossini’s monumental Guillaume Tell (1829), which also was heavily cut at its premiere, and anticipates the later music dramas of Wagner. In 2003 the complete Les Troyens was triumphantly staged at Le Châtelet in Paris and Opus arte is thrilled to present this 3 DVD visual document of this lavish production. American Gregory Kunde, known for his great in the French operatic repertoire, as Aeneas and Anna Catarina Antonacci as Dido leads an international cast that also includes Susan Graham and Topi Lehtipuu. John Eliot Gardiner, one of the leading Berlioz conductors of our times, conducts. A truly unforgettable experience.