With the LSO & its Chorus fired with Sir Colin Davis's energy
and life-long dedication to the cause of Berlioz, the several performances
of The Trojans brought the LSO's Berlioz Odyssey 2000 to a magnificent
culmination.
December in England is a risky time for singers and there was a musical chairs
of last minute cast and role changes, with an indisposed Olga Boradino replaced
by Michelle De Young (admired in Mahler at San Sebastian) who switched from
Cassandra to Dido. On my two nights, Petra Lang
[right]
as Cassandra
was the star, and I do not remember having been more wholly absorbed by the
prophetess of doom in previous performances, whether staged or in concert
(Beecham and a younger Colin Davis). Michelle De Young sang well,
and looked magnificently queenly, but failed to move me with her abandonment
leading to suicide. Toby Spence sang the marvellous Hylas song (substituting
for Garrie Davislim) in a forthright manner, straight into one of the battery
of microphones (for BBC & for LSO-Live) at stage front, but he failed
to eclipse an enduring, treasured memory of Ian Bostridge, reflecting on
life in his distant family home before falling asleep from, as I recall,
somewhere towards the back of the orchestra; I hailed Bostridge then as a
coming star before he became a household name soon afterwards.
Interesting how a small appearance can be the one never forgotten. In the
Trojans at Carthage this time round, I would pick out Tigran Martirossian
(a well focused bass) as Panthus, hurrying the departure for
Italy[PICT]. Two other basses, Andrew
Greenan & Roderick Earle, could not fail in the delicious comic dialogue
of the two sentries deploring their enforced separation from their compliant
local women; a cameo which is always a hit.
I enjoyed Ben Heppner as Aeneas rather less, but it is a strenuous and unrewarding part and we may have been disadvantaged by press seats rather too close, from where a lot of the singing sounded unnecessarily loud. In general, I would comment that with full words and translations supplied in the LSO's comprehensive programme book(s) - two for The Trojans - and the lights left up so that we could read them - (which often doesn't happen!) there was no need for singers to maintain a steady forte, whether for us in the hall or for the forest of microphones which dominated the picture.
I await the CDs with keen anticipation, having been greatly impressed by Tony Faulkner's engineering for previous LSO-Live releases.
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