Berlioz: Les Troyens Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

Berlioz: Les Troyens Blu-ray Movie Review

I've heard of a Trojan Horse virus, but this is a little ridiculous.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 29, 2011

They’re baaaack.

One of the grand surprises of last year’s quite formidable slate of Blu-ray classical music and opera releases was the astounding Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen staged by the Catalan theatre group La Fura dels Baus and conducted by Zubin Mehta. Anyone who regularly reads my opera reviews knows by now I don’t suffer gladly tarted up productions which too often descend into what I can only describe as the bowels of Eurotrash, and so I was actually a bit concerned when I read about this Ring cycle, which was evidently replete with modern technology, projections, wire work and all sorts of hoo-hah (technical term) which I usually find lamentable. Imagine my astonishment, then, when upon viewing and listening to it, this Ring turned out to be one of the most viscerally exciting productions of the epic cycle in recent memory, one which actually helped to make the manifold hours fly by—sometimes literally, as the Cirque du Soleil-esque troupe took to the air. Wagner of course wanted to meld the arts together into one grand enterprise incorporating virtually all media at his disposal, and so La Fura del Baus’ approach to staging the Ring seemed quite appropriate. But is their multimedia approach transferable to other properties? In a way, it makes sense to bridge out to Hector Berlioz’s gargantuan, dare I say nearly Wagnerian, five hour long opera Les Troyens, a piece which has defied production designers and operatic directors for well over a century now. It’s a simply mammoth piece on virtually every level, and it can simply become too cumbersome to get off the ground, so to speak. If La Fura del Baus’ efforts with Berlioz aren’t quite as successful as they were with the Ring, they’re still often completely mind boggling, bringing an insanely formidable production design ethos combined with equally amazing acrobatics that at least provide ample visual splendor to get lost in even if dramatically this Troyens is at times more than a bit muddled and slow moving.

Part of what keeps Les Troyens from being quite as successful as Fura’s Ring cycle is directly related to director Carlus Padrissa’s differing approaches to the two gargantuan pieces. Despite the technological marvels utilized to up the visual ante in the Ring cycle, it was at its core a relatively traditional interpretation, true to Wagner’s libretti and solidly in an almost Bayreuthian niche in terms of its approach toward character, if not stagecraft. While it’s perfectly understandable why he did this, Padrissa modernizes Les Troyens, taking that old Trojan Horse motif literally and injecting it into the modern, computer age, so that it is now a virus. Everything here in fact takes place in an ultra modern interior technological world that is part Matrix and part Tron. It is decidedly not true to Berlioz’s intent and it works against the cohesiveness of the opera, which is further hobbled by the outrageous, albeit completely entertaining, visual style that is always part and parcel of La Fura del Baus.

As with Fura’s Ring cycle, the emphasis here is on incredible visuals, and Fura’s projection system has been upgraded so to speak with what appears to be three dimensional projections that fill up center stage with a variety of interesting content. This approach is especially impressive in the death of Lacoön, which plays out like a hallucinatory attack by giant worms feeding on blood and guts. But other aspects of this production are downright silly and needlessly confusing. When the ensemble shows up wearing what looks like slightly adapted hockey outfits early in Act I, many in the audience may take it as a “what the puck?” moment (sorry, couldn’t resist that one). Later, we get costumes that look more Star Wars paratroopers. It’s fun to see, certainly, but it doesn’t really make a whole bunch of sense.

Despite the issues many are probably going to have with the physical production here (as undeniably arresting as it is), this Troyens is graced by an uncommonly robust musical element. The cast is filled with some fantastic star turns, including a radiant Elisabete Matos as Cassandre and an equally impressive Daniela Barcellona as Dido. The ensemble also sounds fantastic, and the Orquestra de la Communitat Valenciana delivers a mostly towering account of the score under the able direction of Valery Gergiev. Despite occasional intonation problems in the brass, this is an incredibly vigorous interpretation that brings Berlioz’s often overwhelming orchestrations fully to life.

Les Troyens was so huge that it famously wasn’t ever produced as a whole in Berlioz’s lifetime, and just as famously didn’t even get a full, all five acts in one evening, production in the original French until a Covent Garden presentation in 1969, close to a century after Berlioz completed the gargantuan work. The fact that La Fura del Baus doesn’t just perform the opera in its entirety, but with such attendant acrobatics and physicality, is something of a minor miracle. This is an opera which requires a marathon runner’s approach, and if this race stumbles in a few aspects, it’s still completely remarkable that the players make it across the finish line at all.

Berlioz: Les Troyens Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Les Troyens is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of C Major and Unitel Classica with an AVC encoded 1080i transfer in 1.78:1. Unfortunately this Blu-ray can't quite overcome the fact that the bulk of this piece is performed on an often very dark stage. Also especially problematic is the fact that a central part of the stage is utilized for the three dimensional projections, which coat that part of the stage in a gauzy softness. The third hobbling aspect is the use of a scrim which also softens and darkens the elements considerably. What that means is a lot of detail is lost in the overall darkness and attendant crush, and only occasionally do things really pop with anything approach hi-def grandeur. All of this said, there is some nice detail in evidence here in some of the close-ups, especially with regard to some of the costumes. But overall for such a staggeringly visual production as this, this Blu-ray is a bit of a disappointment with regard to image quality.

Berlioz: Les Troyens Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Les Troyens is presented with two lossless audio options, a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround mix and an LPCM 2.0 stereo fold down. No matter what qualms some may have with the physical production of this opera, few will probably have any issues whatsoever with the lossless tracks on this Blu-ray. The DTS track is beautifully spacious and for the most part very well balanced. There are occasional issues of the huge orchestra overwhelming individual soloists, but they are typically just for parts of phrases and seem to be based on the singers' stage positions, indicating there's a microphone issue. The orchestra sounds mostly fantastic here (as noted above, there are a couple of brief intonation problems with the brass), and the DTS track offers sterling fidelity of Berlioz's always colorful orchestrations. Surround channels offer a very sumptuous recreation of the hall acoustics and ambience and there's also some nice utilization of the surrounds for ensemble moments.

Berlioz: Les Troyens Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Making of Les Troyens (1080i; 20:37) is an interesting piece which actually starts with some background on the construction of the gorgeous new Valencia Palace of the Arts (which itself looks like something out of Star Wars) where La Fura del Baus perform, and then moves on to give a wealth of production data about pulling together this immense presentation.

Berlioz: Les Troyens Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

It's not the staging per se but the concept that hampers this over the top production of one of the most over the top operas of all time, Berlioz's Les Troyens. La Fura del Baus offers intriguing stagecraft, amazing projections and wacky and weird costume choices, but in this case, the parts are probably greater than the whole. The best part of this production is arguably something which can be completely divorced from the amazing production aesthetic, namely the music. Well sung and well played, this is a vigorous and involving Les Troyens from a purely sonic standpoint. While this doesn't rise to the level of Fura's Ring and is hampered by a less than stellar video presentation on this Blu-ray, it's still interesting enough, and commandingly musical enough, to come Recommended.