Berlioz - Les Troyens / Lakes · Pollet · Voigt · Quilico · Courtis · Perraguin · Ainsley · Dutoit

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com essential recording
In the absence of Colin Davis's pioneering Les Troyens recording on Philips (temporary, one hopes), Charles Dutoit's more recent 1993 outing with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and Chorus gives a vital, idiomatically French account of the opera, despite mixed success with the singers. Few operas are as nightmarish to cast as this epic about the Trojan War and its aftermath, and it would have been better made either a few years earlier when Plácido Domingo and Jessye Norman were still performing it, or a few years later, when Ben Heppner and Renée Fleming might be recruited. In the central role of Aeneas, Gary Lakes has been unfairly compared to Jon Vickers on the Davis set, though Lakes came to the recording having done a number of stage performances of Les Troyens, and it shows. As Cassandra, Deborah Voigt delivers magnificent vocalism but is still finding her way into the role. The big disappointment is Françoise Pollet, who is a vocally underpowered, score-bound Dido. Still, Dutoit generates sparks, thanks to his attempted use of Berlioz's fast metronome markings. --David Patrick Stearns

Berlioz - Les Troyens / Lakes · Pollet · Voigt · Quilico · Courtis · Perraguin · Ainsley · Dutoit, Music, Hector Berlioz, Charles Dutoit, Deborah Voigt, Gary Lakes, Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, Françoise Pollet, Michel Philippe, Catherine Dubosc, Marc Belleau, Gino Quilico, René Schirrer, Hélène Perraguin, Gregory Cross, Jean-Philippe Courtis, Michel Beauchmin, Céline Chaput, Jean-Luc Maurette, Claudine Carlson, Joanne Fillion, John Mark Ainsley, Martina Brehmer, Lucie Mayer, Classical, Classical Composers, Classical Music, French Romantic Opera, Opera, Opera / Operetta / Oratorio
Berlioz - Les Troyens / Lakes · Pollet · Voigt · Quilico · Courtis · Perraguin · Ainsley · Dutoit
Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • I agree
  • IDIOMATIC FRENCH OPERA PRODUCTION FROM CANADA
  • Can't be compared to Davis's two sets
  • "Troyens" at last!
  • A Great Recording of A Masterpiece
 Berlioz - Les Troyens / Lakes · Pollet · Voigt · Quilico · Courtis · Perraguin · Ainsley · Dutoit
Hector Berlioz , Charles Dutoit , Deborah Voigt , Gary Lakes , Orchestre symphonique de Montréal , Françoise Pollet , Michel Philippe , Catherine Dubosc , Marc Belleau , Gino Quilico , René Schirrer , Hélène Perraguin , Gregory Cross , Jean-Philippe Courtis , Michel Beauchmin , Céline Chaput , Jean-Luc Maurette , Claudine Carlson , Joanne Fillion , John Mark Ainsley , Martina Brehmer , and Lucie Mayer
Manufacturer: Decca
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B00000424M
Release Date: 1994-10-18

Tracks:

  1. Les Troyens: Acte 1: Ha! Ha! Apres dix ans
  2. Les Troyens: Acte 1: Les Grecs ont disparu! (Cassandre)
  3. Les Troyens: Acte 1: Chorebe! ... il faut qu'il parte et quitte la Troada (Cassandre)
  4. Les Troyens: Acte 1: Reviens a toi, vierge adoree
  5. Les Troyens: Acte 1: Signes trompeurs!... Quitte-nous des ce soir (Cassandre)
  6. Les Troyens: Acte 1: Dieux protecteurs de la ville eternelle
  7. Les Troyens: Acte 1: Combat de Ceste
  8. Les Troyens: Acte 1: Pantomime: Andromaque et son fils!
  9. Les Troyens: Acte 1: Un traitre, un espion!
  10. Les Troyens: Acte 1: Du peuple et des soldats, o roi! (Enee)
  11. Les Troyens: Acte 1: Chatiment effroyable! (Enee)
  12. Les Troyens: Acte 1: Que la deesse nous protege (Enee)
  13. Les Troyens: Acte 1: Non, je ne verrai pas la deplorable fete (Cassandre)
  14. Les Troyens: Acte 1: Du roi des dieux , o fille aimee

Tracks:

  1. Les Troyens: Acte 2: Premier Tableau: (Introduction)
  2. Les Troyens: Acte 2: Premier Tableau: O lumiere de Troie! (Enee)
  3. Les Troyens: Acte 2: Premier Tableau: Quelle esperance encor est permice, Panthee? (Enee)
  4. Les Troyens: Acte 2: Deuxieme Tableau: Ah! Puissante Cybele
  5. Les Troyens: Acte 2: Deuxieme Tableau: Tous ne penront pas (Cassandre)
  6. Les Troyens: Acte 2: Deuxieme Tableau: Complices de sa gloire
  7. Les Troyens: Acte 2: Deuxieme Tableau: Cassandre, avec toi nous mourons!
  8. Les Troyens: Prelude - Les Troyens a Carthage
  9. Les Troyens: Acte 3: De Carthage les cieux semblent benir la fete!
  10. Les Troyens: Acte 3: Gloire a Didon
  11. Les Troyens: Acte 3: Nous avon vu finir sept ans a peine (Didon)
  12. Les Troyens: Acte 3: Entree des Constructeurs
  13. Les Troyens: Acte 3: Entree des Matelots
  14. Les Troyens: Acte 3: Entree des Laboureurs
  15. Les Troyens: Acte 3: Peuple! Tous les honneurs (Didon)
  16. Les Troyens: Acte 3: Les chants joyeux (Didon)
  17. Les Troyens: Acte 3: Sa voi fait naitre danes mon sein (Didon)
  18. Les Troyens: Acte 3: Echappes a grand peine
  19. Les Troyens: Acte 3: Marche troyenne dans le mode triste... (Didon)
  20. Les Troyens: Acte 3: Auguste reine
  21. Les Troyens: Acte 3: Jose a peine annoncer la terrible nouvelle!
  22. Les Troyens: Acte 3: Annonce a nos Troyens l'entreprise nouvelle (Enee)

Tracks:

  1. Les Troyens: Acte 4: Premier Tableau: Chasse royale et Orage
  2. Les Troyens: Acte 4: Deuxieme Tableau: Dites, Narbal, qui cause vos alarmes?
  3. Les Troyens: Acte 4: Deuxieme Tableau: De quels revers menaces-tu Carthage
  4. Les Troyens: Acte 4: Deuxieme Tableau: Marche pour l'Entree de la Reine
  5. Les Troyens: Acte 4: Deuxieme Tableau: Pas des Almees
  6. Les Troyens: Acte 4: Deuxieme Tableau: Danse des Esclaves
  7. Les Troyens: Acte 4: Deuxieme Tableau: Pas d'Esclaves nubiennes
  8. Les Troyens: Acte 4: Deuxieme Tableau: Assez, ma sceur (Didon) - O blonde Ceres
  9. Les Troyens: Acte 4: Deuxieme Tableau: Pardonne, lopas, ta voix meme... O pudeur! Tout conspire a vaincre mes remords (Didon)
  10. Les Troyens: Acte 4: Deuxieme Tableau: Mais bannissons ces tristes souvenirs (Enee) - Tout n'est que paix et charme
  11. Les Troyens: Acte 4: Deuxieme Tableau: Nuit d'ivresse et d'extase infinie! (Didon, Enee)

Tracks:

  1. Les Troyens: Acte 5: Premier Tableau: Vallon sonore
  2. Les Troyens: Acte 5: Premier Tableau: Preparez tout, il faut partir enfin
  3. Les Troyens: Acte 5: Premier Tableau: Par Bacchus! ils sont fous avec leur Italie!
  4. Les Troyens: Acte 5: Premier Tableau: Inutiles regrets!... je dois quitter Carthage (Enee)
  5. Les Troyens: Acte 5: Premier Tableau: Ah! quand viendra I'instant des supremes adieux (Enee)
  6. Les Troyens: Acte 5: Premier Tableau: Enee!
  7. Les Troyens: Acte 5: Premier Tableau: Debout, Troyens, eveillez-vous (Enee)
  8. Les Troyens: Acte 5: Premier Tableau: Erannte sur tes pas (Didon)
  9. Les Troyens: Acte 5: Deuxieme Tableau: Va, ma sceur, I'implorer (Didon)
  10. Les Troyens: Acte 5: Deuxieme Tableau: En mer, voyez! six vaisseaux! sept! neuf! dix!
  11. Les Troyens: Acte 5: Deuxieme Tableau: Ah! Ah! je vais mourir (Didon)
  12. Les Troyens: Acte 5: Deuxieme Tableau: Adieu, fiere cite (Didon)
  13. Les Troyens: Acte 5: Troisieme Tableau: Dieux de l'oubli, dieux du Tenare
  14. Les Troyens: Acte 5: Troisieme Tableau: Pluton... sembre m'etre propice (Didon)
  15. Les Troyens: Acte 5: Troisieme Tableau: Ah! au secours! au secours! la reine s'est frappee!

Amazon.com essential recording

In the absence of Colin Davis's pioneering Les Troyens recording on Philips (temporary, one hopes), Charles Dutoit's more recent 1993 outing with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and Chorus gives a vital, idiomatically French account of the opera, despite mixed success with the singers. Few operas are as nightmarish to cast as this epic about the Trojan War and its aftermath, and it would have been better made either a few years earlier when Plácido Domingo and Jessye Norman were still performing it, or a few years later, when Ben Heppner and Renée Fleming might be recruited. In the central role of Aeneas, Gary Lakes has been unfairly compared to Jon Vickers on the Davis set, though Lakes came to the recording having done a number of stage performances of Les Troyens, and it shows. As Cassandra, Deborah Voigt delivers magnificent vocalism but is still finding her way into the role. The big disappointment is Françoise Pollet, who is a vocally underpowered, score-bound Dido. Still, Dutoit generates sparks, thanks to his attempted use of Berlioz's fast metronome markings. --David Patrick Stearns

Customer Reviews:

4 out of 5 stars I agree.......2004-01-08

If you want to listen to Les Troyens, the set to get is the 1969 Davis set. Forget the 2001 set, it's too stripped of its drama. The 1969 set is the best ever!!

5 out of 5 stars IDIOMATIC FRENCH OPERA PRODUCTION FROM CANADA.......2003-09-02

I absolutely love this recording because of the idiomatic and precise enunciation of most of the leads and the gorgeous acoustics of the Church of Ste. Eustache near Montreal.
For all of the virtues of the recently-released version by Colin Davis, this recording still wears its age VERY well and the conducting of Charles Dutoit is superb and has a certain Berliozian "swagger".
In conclusion, add this version to the others you may own and you will not be disappointed. I very highly recommend this Montreal Symphony Orchestra version under the inspired conducting of Dutoit and the excellent choral contribution by Ewan Edwards and his superb chorus.

Timothy Wingate from Ottawa Canada

2 out of 5 stars Can't be compared to Davis's two sets.......2003-07-30

Both in terms of casting and musical performance, this recording cannot be compared to the 2 sets conducted by Colin Davis. The vocal performances here are often unidiomatic and most of the singers are at a loss in respect of the French style. It's an efficient performance, but Berlioz's music deserves more than just an efficient traversal. 2 stars.

5 out of 5 stars "Troyens" at last!.......2002-10-02

I love this opera, but have had a hard time finding a recording of it I like. The old Davis set had Jon Vickers as Enee, who was magnificent, but generally plodding tempos and two awful singers in Berit Lindholm and Josephine Veasey. The live Georges Pretre broadcast had a wonderful cast--Marilyn Horne as Cassandra, Shirley Verrett as Dido, Nicolai Gedda as Enee, and Veriano Luchetti as Iopas--but it was abridged. And the new Colin Davis set has bland singing and conducting, which for me puts it out of the running entirely.

This leaves only two performances to consider, the present recording and the great 1983 Met telecast with Jessye Norman, Placido Domingo and Tatiana Troyanos. The Met video is superb in many ways, but Domingo has to transpose a lot of his music down a semitone because he has no high C, and to me his voice sounds tough and leathery, not thrilling or seductive, and many of the secondary singers (i.e., Paul Plishka well past his prime) are just painful to hear....though it is wonderful to see the whole thing imaginatively staged.

The present recording has a few weak links, particularly the piticul-sounding Catherine Dubosc as Ascagne, but overall it is strongly cast. Gary Lakes, who I did not like on the Conlon recording of "Oberon," sounds just wonderful here. He only misses one high C, oddly enough the same note that Vickers struggled with in HIS recording; otherwise, his voice is lovely, liquid, full and flowing, perhaps a bit too sweet-sounding for Enee but excellent none the less. Dutoit actually got Deborah Voigt to shade her voice somewhat, which results in a very musical and exciting Cassandra; and Francoise Pollet is a sumptuous Dido, perhaps not as viscerally thrilling as Janet Baker or Troyanos, but revealing a rich, creamy mezzo voice and singing the lyrics with drama and commitment.

This performance had me on the edge of my seat often, and almost brought me to tears several times. Dutoit conducts his orchestra and chorus with an almost manic intensity that recalls the very best performances of Toscanini and Munch: if he had only made this one recording, I would still rank him as one of the world's greatest conductors. You can't go wrong with this "Troyens," it is simply magnificent in every respect.

5 out of 5 stars A Great Recording of A Masterpiece.......2001-10-27

With the release of Colin Davis' new recording of Les Troyens there are now two superb recordings of this opera. There are bound to be listeners who prefer the new recording but do not discount the Decca effort.

The Dutoit recording was welcomed with a lot of fanfare when it was issued and it is well sung and recorded. Deborah Voigt as Cassandre and Francoise Pollet as Didon are excellent in their roles. Gary Lakes is good indeed but seemed a little weak on some of his high notes, particularly noticable in the 3rd Act. Also, Catherine Dubose as Ascagne has too much vibrato in her voice when singing in the latter part of the 3rd act that I found distracting.

Despite these minor complaints, there is much to recommend this disk: the wonderful playing by the Orchestre symphonique de Montreal and their choir being particularly excellent. Many of the supporting singers perform with great depth and beauty. An example is the aria of Hylas in the 5th Act (sung by John Mark Ainsley) whose longing for home is very beautifully sung.

To sum up, if you are interested in this grand opera of Berlioz, so misunderstood in his lifetime, you will not go wrong with this set.

Track Listings:

  1. Bliss: Introduction and Allegro, Concerto for Cello and Orchestrameditiations O [Import]
  2. Brahms: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 2 [Import]
  3. Britten: Choral Works Vol 2 - Rejoice in the Lamb, festival cantata Op. 30; Sacred and Profane, 8 medieval lyrics chorus, Op. 91; Te Deum; A Wedding Anthem; Antiphon
  4. Chopin: Sonata No. 3, Etudes, op. 25
  5. Christmas Festival (Dig) [Original recording remastered]
  6. Christopher Hogwood Conducts Martinu, Stravinsky, Honegger
  7. Codex Speciálník: Music From A Prague Manuscript c 1500
  8. Debussy: La Mer; Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune; Ravel: Pavane pour une infante défunte; Ma Mère l'Oye
  9. Devreese: Symphony No.1/Poème Héroique/In Memoriam
  10. Edward Elgar: Enigma Variations, Op. 36 & Cello Concerto, Op. 85

Track Listings

track listings

Track Listings

Turn on Tune in Drop out [Soundtrack]

Brahms: Violin Sonata No. 3; Busoni: Sonata

Big Dave & the Ultrasonics

Teddy Wilson and His All Stars V.1 [Import]

The Faults

Best of the Drifters [Import]

Back in Town [Import] [Original recording remastered]

Bartók: The Miraculous Mandarin; Janácek: Sinfonietta

American Child

Art Tatum & Ben Webster Quartet [Import]

Arrive Without Travelling/Ever After

Arkansas Twist

A Tribute to Soft Cell

The Hawkins Family

Mal 2