The final category according to which Berlioz: The Complete Works, the 27-CD boxed set released by Warner Classics, has been organized is that of opera. While only five CDs needed to be allocated for sacred music, the opera category fills almost nine. This should not be a surprise. As opera audiences shifted from the aristocracy to the bourgeoisie, those producing opera had to worry about customers getting their money’s worth; and this often involved lengthy presentations (with generous offerings of spectacle and attractive dancers) in favor of what these days we might regard as “depth of content.”
Set design of Dido’s throne room for the premiere performance of Les Troyens à Carthage on November 4, 1863 (created by Philippe Chaperon, from Wikimedia Commons, public domain)
Almost four entire CDs are devoted to operatic spectacle at its most epic. This, of course, is Hector Berlioz’ five-act opera Les Troyens (the Trojans), whose length was so imposing that the first performance presented only the last three of its five acts under the title Les Troyens à Carthage (the Trojans at Carthage). This site presented an extended discussion of this opera in November of 2017, when the Erato division of Warner released an album of the entire opera on four CDs taken from recordings made of two concert performances in the French city of Strasbourg given in April of 2017.
As might be guessed, this is the same recording that concludes the opera category in the complete-works box. What is interesting, however, is that all three of the operas presented in their entirety are led by the same conductor, John Nelson. While he is working with different resources for each opera, Nelson’s presence establishes a somewhat “integrated perspective” of Berlioz by taking on both Benvenuto Cellini and Béatrice et Bénédict before moving on to Les Troyens. As a result, the only selection in which Nelson is not present is that of the existing fragments from La Nonne sanglante (the bloody nun), given a world premiere recording conducted by Daniel Kawka. (Note, also, that Benvenuto Cellini is being given its first recording in its original Paris version.)
La Nonne sanglante is one of those cases in which the backstory is more interesting than Berlioz’ music. If we are to believe what Berlioz wrote in his memoirs, he was approached by Eugène Scribe with an early sketch of a libretto resulting in a contract signed by Berlioz, Scribe, and Léon Pillet, who commissioned the work for the Paris Opera. This partnership did not take long to break down, and probably all three parties were responsible. Ultimately, Berlioz broke with Scribe; and his libretto was subsequently set to music by Charles Gounod.
Personally, I came away from listening to these recordings with a sense that opera was not really in Berlioz’ comfort zone. Béatrice et Bénédict, named after the two protagonists of William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, suggests that, while Berlioz’ relationship with Shakespearean actress Harriet Smithson was a rocky one, his love for the plays of Shakespeare, which she inspired, was an enduring one. The opera is Berlioz only venture into comedy; and, even with a conductor as informed as Nelson and a Béatrice sung by soprano Susan Graham, any sense of a light comic touch eludes almost all of the score. Benvenuto Cellini fares better; but it enjoys the advantage of familiarity among listeners familiar with not only the overture but also the Opus 9 “Le carnaval romain” (the Roman carnival) concert overture.
The only significant difficulty is that of all of the other vocal works in the Berlioz catalog. No texts are provided as part of the Warner box. Fortunately, The Hector Berlioz Website includes a Berlioz Libretti Web page that covers all vocal music except for the Nonne sanglante fragments. The only problem is that all texts are only in French. Finding English resources is “left as an exercise for the reader!”
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