Berlioz - Les Troyens / Levine, Troyanos, Norman, Domingo, Metropolitan Opera

Customer Reviews:

Beautiful traditional staging of this masterpiece.......2007-06-18

The Met performance of twenty or more years ago is still the one to see. The cast is flawless. Jessie Norman as Cassandra gives the best performance of her illustrious career and the young Troyanos and Domingo are also superb. A huge cast with excellent ballets (there are several) does this remarkable work justice. I give it four instead of five stars because the sound is somewhat under-recorded. I had to really boost the volume. Nevertheless, this is THE Troyens on DVD!

Not Great Visually But Who Cares??.......2007-01-22

OK, so this is not the greatest video visually. The colors are blah, the focus leaves a lot to be desired occasionally, and the stage sets are far from exciting. But if the most important asset of opera is the singing anyway, this is the video of Les Troyens to have. Jessye Norman's voice is clear and powerful, and the role of Cassandra the prophetess gone beserk is a great one for her. Even though Domingo's role is a punishing one he does much more than survive it -- his singing is a triumph. Troyanos is wonderful as Dido. Also wonderful is Levine in his young prime conducting an orchestra that is as polished as wonderful as could possibly sound in this sprawling behemoth of a masterpiece. For those who love these singers and love great singing and opera in general, this is a video worth having!!

Use your imagination........2006-06-29

I like this opera very much, but while I found it musically as good as the cast and conductor would lead one to expect, it is visually so disappointing that I gave my copy to the public library. If this performance is on CD, listen to that with your eyes closed and watch the performance you create in your own head. It can only be better.

Honey, Who Does Your Hair?.......2005-02-26

First off, I have to admit that "Les Troyens" is just not a favorite opera of mine. Despite all the sturm und drang (French translation, please), I just don't find the piece involving. That said, it's obviously a significant work and worthy of every opera fan's attention. And this DVD, recorded at the Met in 1983, offers a starry cast, all of whom do themselves proud. Norman has to be one of the most intense and idiosyncratic sopranos of the past 30 years, and she's riveting here; the sound is glorious, the acting remarkable. Domingo is hardly less effective, with his bright, clarion sound superbly matched by the mellowness of Troyanos, herself a superb actress. So why only 2 stars? Because the production is a disaster. It's ill-conceived and lumbering, with sets that match the auditorium's garish gold theme to ill effect. (Can this look really have been considered stylish in the 70s?) The costumes in particular are a joke; literally, they're laugh inducing. The identical braids for the female chorus and the Chewbacca boots for the Trojan soldiers may have seemed chic on paper, but when seen on the frumpy, geriatric singers, they're nothing short of ridiculous. (It may sound as if I'm being unduly harsh, but they have to be seen to be believed.) At one point, poor Mr. Domingo must don an enormous helmet that all but swallows his head -- and you can palpably sense his embarassment and discomfort. Troyanos' gold lame outfits are equally absurd. One can only watch in amazement and think that for their fashion sense alone, the Trojans deserved to lose the war. All this tackiness undermines the entire enterprise, which is a shame, as the sounds that the singers and Levine's orchestra are producing are magnificent. If you're a die-hard fan or very, very curious, by all means buy this version of "Les Troyens." But prepare to watch it with your eyes closed.

good music, bad theatre.......2005-01-11

I love the opera's of Hector Berlioz, who is one of the most important opera composers of the 19th century. His stature is comparable with that Richard Wagner who had been greatly influenced by the older French composer who - like Wagner - preferred to write music to his own words. In fact, I believe "Les Troyens" is one of the greatest opera's ever written and its music has been with me as long as I can remember.

Looking at the reviews of this DVD on Amazon, I was surprised to find out that so many people gave it a good rating. The reason for this - I soon found out - was that almost everybody was blinded by the vocal abilities of J. Norman. I admit that, if we are talking about voices, she is the star of the evening, but let us be honest. She is not much of an actress. Nor is any other member of this cast. Isn't the theatre-aspect in an opera not just as important as the musical-aspect of it?

What we see here is a typical Metropolitan production showing us a lot of stars and a lot of shiny armours, crowded stages and out-dated choreography. Good music, combined with bad theatre. Take Norman's Cassandra, for instance. The role of Cassandra is my favourite and starting at the duet with Chorèbe, until her epiphany at the end of act I, you realise that this woman should be seen suffering from a tragic condition that slowly renders her to despair. Norman is as mad as a hatter from the first moment we see her. There is not much room for development of this character, for a gentle crescendo into her madness.

In the second act, Cassandra should be resolute. She has overcome her tragic blindness (what the Greek called "hamartia"), and understands the fate of her self and her people, but in Norman I could find nothing of this tragic heroine. She continues to overact, to make funny faces, to nearly faint a couple of times, to wave her arms theatrically through the air; not to mention the eyes: I thought they would pop out. I think Norman `overacts' all the way and so do the others of whom I could give similar examples.

The stage-design was extremely conservative, too much kitsch, too tacky. The costumes are outdated about a hundred years and the props look stupid, especially Chorèbes giant axe, that made him look like Gimli in Lord of the Rings. The choreography is immensely static - what do you want, with such a tacky scène and so many people - and lacks any inspiration.

In short, this DVD is too boring to watch. It is old-fashioned, tacky and tasteless. Don't buy it. Instead you could check out Gardiner's production of this opera, made in Paris last year (in the very theatre this opera was written for). That was a brilliant performance. I haven't written a review of that DVD since everything has already been said about it by other Amazon-reviewers. So, if you want, compare the Paris-production with the New York-production. It's day and night!

DVD:

DVD

DVD