Ballets, songs, a supper party … and the gorgeous sequence of quintet and septet, climaxing with the lovers alone to consummate their union with a throbbing duet of pretty speeches drawn from Berlioz’ other favorite author, Shakespeare. But then grand opera sets in: a sequence of gala celebrations of the lovers’ military victory over a neighboring king. The orchestra seems to take care of all that. One pitfall that Berlioz dug for himself in his masterpiece, Les Troyens, loosely based on the first books of Vergil’s Aeneid, lay in creating the prelude to Act IV, “The Royal Hunt and Storm,” an orchestral illustration of the poem’s discreet narrative of Aeneas and Dido out hunting, taking refuge from a storm in a convenient cave where … what occurs is not described. Turning narrative fiction into drama is a task full of pitfalls. Orchestra & Chorus of Lyric Opera of Chicago
Libretto and music Hector Berlioz after Virgil
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