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Music Review

Love Lies in Carthage, but Duty Calls in Rome in Berlioz’s 5-Act Epic

Les Troyens A scene from Berlioz’s five-act opera, which opened on Monday at the Royal Opera House in London under David McVicar’s direction.Credit...Bill Cooper/ROH

LONDON — A lot was riding on the new production of Berlioz’s epic opera “Les Troyens” that opened at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, on Monday night. This staging by the director David McVicar is a co-production with the Vienna State Opera, Teatro Alla Scala in Milan and the San Francisco Opera. The Royal Opera’s “Troyens” is also a major event in the London 2012 Festival, and it will be shown in movie theaters worldwide in November.

Getting this sprawling, five-act opera on the stage has both inspired and confounded some of the best directors in the field. Mr. McVicar’s production, with sets by Es Devlin and costumes by Moritz Junge, uses updated imagery to tell the story, drawn from Virgil’s “Aeneid.” Here are the valiant Aeneas, his pivotal encounter with the prophetic Cassandra and his consuming love affair with Queen Dido in Carthage. The look of the production suggests mid-19th-century Europe at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution.

The first act, which shows the fortress the people of Troy have built to ward off 10 years of siege by the Greeks, is dominated by a massive, multitiered, convex iron wall. The image is powerful, if rather obvious. But the production becomes increasingly cluttered, weighed down by symbolism and cumbersome props. The scene when Dido and Aeneas are entertained by the dancing of Egyptian girls and Nubian slaves was tasteless, with slinky, gyrating choreography by Andrew George.

Though Berlioz did not live to see it performed complete, “Les Troyens,” an astonishing score lasting more than four hours, was the summation of his work. The Royal Opera presented a milestone production, performed in a single evening, in 1969, conducted by Colin Davis.

In a poignant coincidence, on Monday night, Mr. Davis, 84 and a little frail, a supreme Berlioz interpreter, conducted the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in Berlioz’s Requiem at St. Paul’s Cathedral, not far from Covent Garden.

The Royal Opera’s “Troyens” was conducted by the company’s excellent music director, Antonio Pappano, employing a vibrant and fresh, if unusual, approach. On one level “Les Troyens” is a pathbreaking Romantic work, an intensely dramatic opera with choral scenes and sweeping momentum. But it is also an elegant piece with a refined French sensibility, a work that looks back, especially to Gluck. The vocal writing, while sometimes heroic, is direct and elevated, almost devoid of flashiness.

Mr. Davis and other insightful Berlioz conductors have balanced excitement with restraint. Mr. Pappano drew a big-gestured, brightly colored and rhapsodic performance from the Royal Opera’s impressive orchestra and chorus. Some scenes lacked mystery and magic, like the transcendent septet that leads into the ravishing love duet at the end of Act IV. Still, this was a pulsing and exciting rendition.

Any production of “Les Troyens” better have a charismatic tenor on hand to sing the demanding role of Aeneas (Enée). The Royal Opera thought it had the great Jonas Kaufmann. But the infection that caused Mr. Kaufmann to withdraw from performing Siegmund in the Metropolitan Opera’s “Ring” recently also compelled him to withdraw late last month from “Les Troyens.”

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The mezzo-soprano Hanna Hipp, holding a bowl, and the soprano Eva-Maria Westbroek in “Les Troyens.”Credit...Bill Cooper/ROH

Taking his place was Bryan Hymel, a 32-year-old American, who gave a stalwart performance and received a hearty ovation. Mr. Hymel has a bright, muscular voice with clean top notes and pretty good carrying power. He is not, or not yet, a major tenor of the kind the role ideally requires. But he saved the day.

The Italian soprano Anna Caterina Antonacci triumphed as Cassandra (Cassandre). This fascinating artist, who made a rare American appearance in a recital at Alice Tully Hall in April, limits her operatic performances in Europe as well. Though that is her choice, it is the field’s loss. She had everything as Cassandra. Her singing was lush, fervent, finely spun and noble. A lovely woman, she is a riveting actress, who achingly conveyed that Cassandra feels cursed by her prophetic powers.

The Dutch soprano Eva-Maria Westbroek was a splendid Dido (Didon). The last time I saw her at the Royal Opera, in February 2011, she created the title role in the premiere of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s exhilarating opera “Anna Nicole,” based on Anna Nicole Smith, the American sex symbol and sometime actress, a character as far removed from Dido as can be.

Ms. Westbroek’s big, shimmering, dark-hued voice was ideal for this complex Berlioz heroine. At first she was fully the queen who, almost to her astonishment, presides over the plentiful city of Carthage, which she established with her people. Everything changes when Aeneas arrives. Ms. Westbroek touchingly showed the queen admitting vulnerability and giving herself to love.

Met audiences saw Mr. McVicar’s work last season with his effective, if safe and nondescript, production of Donizetti’s “Anna Bolena.” He can take some credit for drawing rich portrayals from the leads in this “Troyens.” But other elements of the production got in the way.

The largest prop is a towering Trojan horse, made of the debris the battle-weary Greeks would have had at hand, mostly used weapons and war junk. But with just a tottering head that often spews flames and smoke, the horse looks a little comic. The play “Warhorse” is still running in London. This “Troyens” could be subtitled “Extreme Warhorse.”

In Act III, when the story shifts to Carthage, the steel-framed barricade of the Trojans is turned around and we see a reddish sandstone, multitiered arena, with happy citizens of Carthage wearing colorful North African costumes standing in the rows and cheering their queen. Most of the stage floor is taken up by a mini-model of the city, like a huge toy, with buildings small enough for Dido and her attendants to sit on.

Later the toy city is raised and inverted, to indicate the topsy-turvy fate of Dido and her people. The symbolism is too pat, and the hovering prop just distracts you.

This is unfortunate, because the singing, over all, is strong, especially that of the mezzo-soprano Hanna Hipp as Anna, Dido’s attentive sister; the baritone Fabio Capitanucci as Coroebus, Cassandra’s ill-fated fiancé; the tenor Ji Hyun Kim as Helenus, King Priam’s son; and the eminent bass Robert Lloyd as the wizened Priam. The appealing young tenor Ed Lyon made the most of the wistful song sung by Hylas, a homesick Phrygian sailor.

About Mr. Kaufmann: Opera circles have been abuzz with concern over whether his illness could be the sign of a vocal problem. Recently on his Web site he posted a somewhat defensive note, saying that his “forced break” was all but over and that starting next month, he will be singing again. This is good news for the Met, where Mr. Kaufmann is scheduled to sing the title role in a new production of Wagner’s “Parsifal” next year.

“Les Troyens” runs through July 11 at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London; roh.org.uk.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section C, Page 2 of the New York edition with the headline: Love Lies in Carthage, But Duty Calls in Rome In Berlioz’s 5-Act Epic. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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