Didon: Ekaterina Semenchuk
Énée: Mikhail Vekua
Cassandre: Anna Markarova
Narbal: Yuri Vorobiev
Anna: Anna Kiknadze
Chorèbe: Alexei Markov
World premiere (Les Troyens à Carthage, acts 3–5): 4 November 1863, Théâtre Lyrique, Paris
Premiere of the complete version: 6 and 7 December 1890, Großherzogliches Hoftheater, Karlsruhe
Premiere on the Russian stage: 14 December 1899, Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow (Les Troyens à Carthage, acts 3–5, performed in Russian, translated by Yekaterina Kletnova)
Premiere at the Mariinsky Theatre: 25 December 2009
Premiere of this production: 28 May 2014
Running time 5 hours 05 minutes
The performance has two intervals
Hector Berlioz has gone down in history as a romantic and an innovator, almost indeed a trouble-maker. Paying scant attention to the demands of fashion, in everything he was a maximalist. Those who asked for Berlioz' autograph in their albums risked receiving the response of the impromptu "Chorus for four hundred and two voices in an unknown Celtic language". But when it comes to serious works then he borrowed plots from the great poets. For Les Troyens – a grand opéra in five acts – he chose Virgil's Aeneid.
Les Troyens appeared at the cross of two traditions. On the one hand it was a tribute to an admiration for the operas of the great revolutionary of the 18th century, Christoph Willibald Gluck, the continuation of his work that was imbued with Antiquity. On the other hand, Les Troyens in five acts with its choruses and ballet scenes was a true French grand opéra, the most monumental of opera's romantic genres, both in terms of the cast and in the length of the performance.
In Les Troyens there are not just two kings, there are two peoples. This is the reason why the opera's score is adorned with powerful choruses and ensembles with so many participants: a quintet, septet and octet. The dances in Acts I and III are intended not for individual soloists, but rather as crowd scenes. The anthems, marches and processions demand and require a huge amount of people on the stage. In accordance with the laws of French grand opéra there had to be a ballet in Act IV. The act would open with an entire ballet scene – "Royal Hunt and Storm".
At the Mariinsky Theatre Les Troyens only appeared in the 21st century. The current production is the second visit by the theatre and Valery Gergiev to this mammoth opera. The Stage Director and Set Designer of Les Troyens is the Frenchman of Greek descent, Yannis Kokkos. In St Petersburg he has revived his production of 2003, which was staged to celebrate two centuries since the birth of Berlioz in Paris. The stylish and laconic set designs cleverly make use of a gigantic mirror: its reflection makes the impressive events depicted within it even more grandiose and majestic.
Anna Bulycheva
Based on the Théâtre du Châtelet-Paris’ production created by Yannis Kokkos (Premiere: 11 October 2003), in co-production with the Grand Théâtre de Genève
The highlighting of performances by age represents recommendations.
This highlighting is being used in accordance with Federal Law N436-FZ dated 29 December 2010 (edition dated 1 May 2019) "On the protection of children from information that may be harmful to their health"