Grabbing headlines like a pillaging advance party, the offstage story surrounding Berlioz’s Les Troyens (1856-8) was never going to sabotage the main event. Nor did it. A star cast, near flawless choir and tireless orchestra arrived at the Proms last weekend, from a European tour, to reveal this sprawling work in all its ambition. The conductor John Eliot Gardiner, who dreamed up the project, trained the musicians and no doubt contributed to the semi-staging, was absent: he has withdrawn from all remaining concerts in 2023 after allegedly assaulting one of the soloists. His younger associate, Portuguese-born Dinis Sousa, already a considerable conductor in his own right, leapt into the breach with grace and intensity, directing the Monteverdi Choir, Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique and soloists, led by Alice Coote, Paula Murrihy and Michael Spyres, in a spellbinding, well-paced performance.
This dazzling and lopsided opera, recounting the fall of Troy and the fateful love of Dido and Aeneas – Berlioz’s own libretto draws on Virgil’s Aeneid – was not performed in full in the composer’s lifetime. A summation of his maverick creative ingenuity, it gathered dust for most of a century. Now back in the repertoire but always a monumental undertaking, it retains the feel of a novelty. Theatre stagings can be problematic. The five-act work found ideal realisation in the Albert Hall. Performers made use of stairs, galleries, side entrances (movement director Tess Gibbs, lighting Rick Fisher). Playing period instruments and enhanced by ophicleide and an army of offstage saxhorns, the orchestra sounded transparent and lithe, Berlioz’s sonic originality bursting forth.
Part one is dominated by Cassandra, the truth-teller who prompts the Trojan women to kill themselves. Alice Coote, commanding the stage with fervour, both vocal and physical, mesmerised and enthralled. If she has sounded more convincing in a role, I can’t recall which. Beth Taylor’s Anna, exuberant and heartfelt, wrenching off her high heels, was the perfect foil for her “sister” Dido, queen of Carthage, performed by Murrihy with controlled dignity. All three women are listed as mezzo-sopranos (Cassandra and Dido are sometimes sung by one singer), but the vocal contrasts here added immeasurably to the drama.
Spyres, as Aeneas, is currently a top choice in the role – try his award-winning Erato recording, with Joyce DiDonato as Dido. The American tenor combines heft with pianissimo high notes, heroic presence with lyricism. From the strong ensemble cast, the tenor Laurence Kilsby (Iopas/Hylas) sang his two arias with poetic ardour. The Monteverdi Choir, versatile, well drilled, every word articulated, remain one of the best around.
From the Frenchman Berlioz to the Austrian Anton Bruckner: hard to imagine two less similar figures, the one audacious, quick-witted, free-thinking; the other an oddball, backward-looking, riddled with mania and obsession. But Berlioz was among the composers who encouraged the anxious Bruckner in his attempts to write symphonies, central to his output. Semyon Bychkov conducted the BBC Symphony Orchestra in the composer’s last completed work in the form, No 8 in C minor (1890 version) (Prom 65), sometimes referred to as “the Apocalyptic”. No decisions are hurried in this 85-minute piece. A grand, weighty flag of colour unfurls slowly, gleaming and deep-hued.
Out of this immensity, details make an impact: the entry of the harps in the second-movement scherzo; the climactic cymbals and triangle near the end of the slow movement; the army of brass at the start of the finale against sawing strings; fat pizzicatos on the basses; timpani thundering to wake the dead. As a conductor, Bychkov invites rather than commands, laying down his baton to achieve highest expression in the third movement, using both hands like loose reins, never stabbing or pointing, only urging. The BBCSO responded warmly, receiving rapturous applause.
In a Proms season overflowing with virtuosity, Aurora Orchestra and their by-heart Rite of Spring wins out for risk and technical agility. These pioneers of memorised performance gave a matinee and an evening Prom (I went to the first and listened to the second), each preceded by a “dramatic exploration” of Stravinsky’s composition, with actors Karl Queensborough and Charlotte Ritchie. Nicholas Collon, Aurora’s conductor and spellcaster in chief, is a natural host. The dancing energy of the players unleashed the music’s knots and snarls, letting all fly wild, enjoyment evident. Of many thoughts coursing through the head listening to Aurora, the nature of memory is ever uppermost. How can an entire orchestra remember these multiple thousands of notes and combine with their orchestral colleagues with such precision? Conversely, how can some audience members, with nothing else to think of, forget the single act of switching their phones off? It’s a mystery. Everyone was on their feet at the end, a standing ovation for a standing orchestra in a performance that was, in every respect, unforgettable.
Star ratings (out of five)
Prom 64: Les Troyens ★★★★★
Prom 65: Bruckner Symphony No 8 ★★★★
Proms 62 & 63: The Rite of Spring ★★★★★
All Proms are on BBC Sounds
