As I mentioned in a previous post, one of my two favorite operas is Les Troyens, so I am happy to present it this week in a superb, virtually-uncut performance (I even love the oft-cut ballet music) from San Francisco last summer.  

I was torn between posting this performance and one from La Scala in 2014 which, I believe, is totally complete.  But it was the voices that made me choose this one.  Both performances have the leading Cassandre of our day, Anna Caterina Antonacci, in her usual intense mode.  I chose the Didon of Susan Graham over Daniele Barcelona, but it was really the two male leads that led to San Francisco being the winner.

This was my introduction to the heroic Enée of Bryan Hymel, and now that I know what he can do, I will make more of an effort to hear him in Wien, although the only role he’s been given at Staatsoper is Pinkerton.  I am intensely proud of young Brian Mulligan as Chorebe, as I was on the jury of the Belvedere Singing Competition the year he won first place (of course I had voted for him).

During our chat after the competition, he revealed that he knew no one in Wien and didn’t speak German, so I had the great pleasure of playing tour guide for him the day after his win.  To top it off, Donald Runnicles’ conducting is simply electrifying.  This may not be my ultimately favorite performance of the opera (from which I am prohibited from posting here), but it’s a damned good substitute!

Hector Berlioz: Les Troyens
LES TROYENS

San Francisco Opera
Donald Runnicles
07 June 2015

A Trojan soldier – Matthew Stump
Cassandre – Anna Caterina Antonacci
Chorebe – Brian Mulligan
Panthee – Philip Horst
Ascagne – Nian Wang
Helenus – Chong Wang
Hecube – Buffy Baggot
Polyxene – Rachel Spidel Little
Priam – Philip Skinner
Enée – Bryan Hymel
The ghost of Hector – Jordan Bisch
A Greek Captain – Anthony Reed
Didon – Susan Graham
Anna – Sasha Cooke
Iopas – René Barbera
Narbal – Christian Van Horn
The voice of Mercury – Anthony Reed
Hylas – Chong Wang
Sentries – Matthew Stump, Anthony Reed
The ghost of Priam – Philip Skinner
The ghost of Chorebe – Brian Mulligan
The ghost of Hector – Jordan Bisch
The ghost of Cassandre – Buffy Baggot

Photo: Bryan Hymel as Enée