Trojan triumph

Opera has naturally made no start at all in 2013 in the UK, the month surrounding Christmas being a culture-free zone. By contrast the New York Met has entered the new year with a thrilling production, revived from 2003, of Berlioz’s Les Troyens, a resounding success in all major respects except one. Lovers of this great masterpiece usually have a chance to see it about once a decade, but only a few months ago it was staged by the Royal Opera in a production that had a muted response. 

Les Troyens is one of those works which either shakes you to the core or leaves you mildly, or even very bored. It aims at the comprehensive vision of great classical epics, indulges a leisureliness of narrative, and has a low-life scene of regrettable banality, but which at least is brief (the two Trojan sentries chatting about the availability of Carthaginian girls).