page_title: Les Troyens
section_title: Premiere of the second part
hierarchical_section_title: Les Troyens / Early performance history / Premiere of the second part
caption_attribution_description: English: Cover for Les Troyens à Carthage by Hector Berlioz from the "second version, second issue" of the vocal score; Les Troyens à Carthage is the second half of Berlioz's opera Les Troyens, and the only half put on during his lifetime. The vocal score for Les Troyens which this comes from was published in two volumes, one for each half of the opera, with each volume having an individual illustration, as well as a general illustration for Les Troyens as a whole which is exactly the same in both halves. This is the unique cover for Les Troyens à Carthage.
context_page_description: Les Troyens is a French grand opera in five acts by Hector Berlioz. The libretto was written by Berlioz himself from Virgil's epic poem the Aeneid; the score was composed between 1856 and 1858. Les Troyens is Berlioz's most ambitious work, the summation of his entire artistic career, but he did not live to see it performed in its entirety. Under the title Les Troyens à Carthage, the last three acts were premièred with many cuts by Léon Carvalho's company, the Théâtre Lyrique, at their theatre on the Place du Châtelet in Paris on 4 November 1863, with 21 repeat performances. After decades of neglect, today the opera is considered by some music critics as one of the finest ever written.
context_section_description: In his memoirs, Berlioz described in excruciating detail the intense frustrations he experienced in seeing the work performed. For five years (from 1858 to 1863), the Paris Opéra – the only suitable stage in Paris – vacillated. Finally, tired of waiting, he agreed to let Léon Carvalho, director of the smaller Théâtre Lyrique, mount a production of the second half of the opera with the title Les Troyens à Carthage. It consisted of Acts 3 to 5, redivided by Berlioz into five acts, to which he added an orchestral introduction (Lamento) and a prologue. As Berlioz noted bitterly, he agreed to let Carvalho do it "despite the manifest impossibility of his doing it properly. He had just obtained an annual subsidy of a hundred thousand francs from the government. Nonetheless the enterprise was beyond him. His theater was not large enough, his singers were not good enough, his chorus and orchestra were small and weak."
  Even with this truncated version of the opera, many compromises and cuts were made, some during rehearsals, and some during the run. The new second act was the Chasse Royale et Orage ("Royal Hunt and Storm") [no. 29], an elaborate pantomime ballet with nymphs, sylvans and fauns, along with a chorus. Since the set change for this scene took nearly an hour, it was cut, despite the fact its staging had been greatly simplified with a painted waterfall backdrop rather than one with real water. Carvalho had originally planned to divert water from the nearby Seine, but during the rehearsals, a faulty switch nearly caused a disaster. The entries of the builders, sailors, and farm-workers [nos. 20–22], were omitted because Carvalho found them dull; likewise, the scene for Anna and Narbal [nos. 30–31] and the second ballet [no. 33b]. The sentries' duet [no. 40] was omitted, because Carvalho had found its "homely style... out of place in an epic work". Iopas's stanzas [no. 25] disappeared with Berlioz's approval, the singer De Quercy "charged with the part being incapable of singing them well." The duet between Didon and Énée [no. 44] was cut because, as Berlioz himself realized, "Madame Charton's voice was unequal to the vehemence of this scene, which took so much out of her that she would not have had the strength left to deliver the tremendous recitative 'Dieux immortels! il part!' [no. 46], the final aria ['Adieu, fière cité', no. 48], and the scene on the pyre [nos. 50–52]." The "Song of Hylas" [no. 38], which was "greatly liked at the early performances and was well sung", was cut while Berlioz was at home sick with bronchitis. The singer of the part, Edmond Cabel, was also performing in a revival of Félicien David's La perle du Brésil, and since his contract only required him to sing fifteen times per month, he would have to be paid an extra two hundred francs for each additional performance. Berlioz lamented: "If I am able to put on an adequate performance of a work of this scale and character I must be in absolute control of the theatre, as I am of the orchestra when I rehearse a symphony."
  Even in its less than ideal form, the work made a profound impression.  For example, Giacomo Meyerbeer attended 12 performances.  Berlioz's son Louis attended every performance.  A friend tried to console Berlioz for having endured so much in the mutilation of his magnum opus and pointed out that after the first night audiences were increasing. "See," he said encouragingly to Berlioz, "they are coming." "Yes," replied Berlioz, feeling old and worn out, "they are coming, but I am going." Berlioz never saw the first two acts, later given the name La prise de Troie ("The Capture of Troy").
caption: Cover of the 1863 Choudens[5] vocal score for Les Troyens à Carthage, the second half of the opera, and first part performed.
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