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tamaranthI hadn't heard The Capture of Troy - part 1 of Berlioz' masterpiece The Trojans, with the second part following in May - until last night. Other Berlioz opera has been pleasant, melodic, tuneful etc. Am not so sure about this one.
The ENO production (which you have now missed) sets the action in a generic modern city. The Trojans look as though they live in Basildon, and the nobles - Cassandra, Priam etc - are dressed [and, worse, move like] the local Conservative party. Act One Scene One - 'The Greeks' abandoned camp on the Trojan plain' - features a section of an airliner being used as a barbecue. Act Two Scene Four - 'A room in Priam's palace' - is staged as a claustrophobic bunker, lower stage left, roofed with satellite dishes against a backdrop that looks very like South Quay in London's Docklands. It's all unsettlingly post-historical.
The finale of Act One is the parade in which the Trojan horse is dragged into the city. It's one of those busy spectaculars that the ENO does very well - gigantic, misproportioned horse, the brass section hauled in, by threes, on trolleys, a masked set of cowboys and Indians (featuring Ronald Reagan). And, in a lull in the music, the clash of metal from within the horse's belly ...
I can't really comment on the music, because for me it had few highlights. There were some wonderful bits of choral writing, and Cassandra - who is on stage nearly all the time - acts as narrator and witness. Hector's ghost [Pavlo Hunka] has a gorgeous voice, and was very Banquo-esque. (Hector & Andromache apparently modelled on the Kennedys). There's an ensemble piece near the end where the Trojan women 'take instruments and sing an exultant hymn to their race', and it made perfect sense for the raggedly-dressed singers to grab guitars and stand like protest singers. But nothing stood out as a 'rush and buy the highlights CD' moment.
Other more classically-minded listeners [*prods![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
swisstone*] can explain why the finale, in which Cassandra and the Trojan women commit suicide (at length, in Cassandra's case), is an alternate history. Berlioz (first name Hector, thus demonstrating how parental choice can cast a long shadow over a life) admired Virgil and his Aeniad, but not sufficiently to stop him adding extra drama.
The ENO production (which you have now missed) sets the action in a generic modern city. The Trojans look as though they live in Basildon, and the nobles - Cassandra, Priam etc - are dressed [and, worse, move like] the local Conservative party. Act One Scene One - 'The Greeks' abandoned camp on the Trojan plain' - features a section of an airliner being used as a barbecue. Act Two Scene Four - 'A room in Priam's palace' - is staged as a claustrophobic bunker, lower stage left, roofed with satellite dishes against a backdrop that looks very like South Quay in London's Docklands. It's all unsettlingly post-historical.
The finale of Act One is the parade in which the Trojan horse is dragged into the city. It's one of those busy spectaculars that the ENO does very well - gigantic, misproportioned horse, the brass section hauled in, by threes, on trolleys, a masked set of cowboys and Indians (featuring Ronald Reagan). And, in a lull in the music, the clash of metal from within the horse's belly ...
I can't really comment on the music, because for me it had few highlights. There were some wonderful bits of choral writing, and Cassandra - who is on stage nearly all the time - acts as narrator and witness. Hector's ghost [Pavlo Hunka] has a gorgeous voice, and was very Banquo-esque. (Hector & Andromache apparently modelled on the Kennedys). There's an ensemble piece near the end where the Trojan women 'take instruments and sing an exultant hymn to their race', and it made perfect sense for the raggedly-dressed singers to grab guitars and stand like protest singers. But nothing stood out as a 'rush and buy the highlights CD' moment.
Other more classically-minded listeners [*prods
swisstone*] can explain why the finale, in which Cassandra and the Trojan women commit suicide (at length, in Cassandra's case), is an alternate history. Berlioz (first name Hector, thus demonstrating how parental choice can cast a long shadow over a life) admired Virgil and his Aeniad, but not sufficiently to stop him adding extra drama.
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Alternate History
Date: Friday, February 28th, 2003 04:32 am (UTC)I think I know why I didn't care for this staging. It appeared to be trying to make itself relevant to the modern world, yet it is too generic - it relates the drama to a world that exists with a background of fear and terrorism. It doesn't relate to a world about to embark on an actual war.