| Date and venue | Title |
|---|---|
| 5-Jan-2013 Lincoln Center: Metropolitan Opera House | The Met in HD: Hymel is the hero in Berlioz's epic Les Troyens |
 It’s very difficult to write about Berlioz’s Les Troyens without mentioning its length. Tonight’s cinema screening of Fransesca Zambello’s lush production was billed at 341 minutes – that’s 5.6 hours. But beamed live from the Metropolitan Opera in New York, those 5.6 hours entailed spectacular operatic entertainment. Several times larger than life, even the indulgent or unnecessarily long episodes (of which there are many) were engrossing.
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| 22-Jul-2012 Royal Albert Hall | Prom 11: Les Troyens |
 David McVicar’s production of Berlioz’s opera Les Troyens at the Royal Opera House last month was notable for several reasons. Firstly, stellar vocal performances from world-class lead singers; secondly, brilliant acting; thirdly, ravishing music; and lastly, a memorable set – including a curious giant horse and human made out of what looked like scrap weapons and tools.Read full review... | |
| 25-Jun-2012 Royal Opera House, Covent Garden | Berlioz's magnum opus Les Troyens at Covent Garden |
 It's one of the most famous, most studied, most archetypal passages in epic poetry: in Book I of Virgil's Aeneid, the Trojans, exhausted from their voyage and desolate at the loss of their city, gaze down on the city of Carthage as it rises from the African soil, its people scurrying like worker bees in their manifold tasks. It provided the high point in the Royal Opera's new staging of Berlioz's magnum opus Les Troyens last night: a brightly costumed chorus singing down from a terraced city carved into a red sandstone cliff, inspired by views of Morocco.
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