This week and next the Artist Choice broadcasts were chosen by Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin. In a wonderful performance of Les Troyens by Hector Berlioz from March 16, 1974; Rafael Kubelík is on the podium with a cast that features Shirley Verrett (Cassandre), Jon Vickers (Énée), and Louis Quilico (Chorèbe).
As a full performance of all five acts of Berlioz's opera can take around 6 hours, it has become popular to break the work into two parts. Saturday we will hear the first two acts which are titled La prise de Troie when performed alone.
After ten years of siege, the people of Troy are celebrating because the Greeks have disappeared and left a giant horse as tribute. Only the prophetess Cassandra (Cassandre) is worried about what is really going on. The warrior Aeneas (Énée) arrives and reports that the priest Laocoön is dead. Suspecting the wooden horse to be some kind of a trick, Laocoön had thrown his spear at it and urged the crowd to set fire to it, when two giant sea serpents appeared and devoured him and his two sons. King Priam and Aeneas order the horse to be brought into the city to beg pardon of Athena. Cassandra realizes that this will be the end of Troy.
Aeneas is visited by the ghost of Hector, who tells him to escape the city. His destiny, he says, is to found a new empire that someday will rule the world. As the ghost disappears, Aeneas’s friend Panthus runs in with news that the Greek soldiers who emerged from the horse are destroying the city. Aeneas rushes off to lead the defense.
The Trojan women pray for deliverance from the invaders. Cassandra prophesizes that Aeneas and some of the Trojans will escape to Italy to build a city—a new Troy. Coroebus (Chorèbe) has fallen, and Cassandra prepares for her own death. She asks the women if they will submit to rape and enslavement. When Greek soldiers enter, the women collectively commit suicide. Aeneas and his men escape with the treasures of Troy.
Tune in for an afternoon of very classic drama and great music by Berlioz - Saturday, February 28, at 1 p.m. here on Blue Lake Public Radio.
