"Les Troyens" is a holy-grail opera: huge both in terms of forces required and length, difficult to stage, and difficult to perform. It's also fantastic music, though I failed to really get it from the old recording I still have buried in my stacks of CDs (and I even have a DVD video of a staging that also falls flat). Not so this time! I had this album playing nonstop for over a week, mostly on the way to work and back again. This performance is tight and committed (as if the musicians were really, really into it), and the recording is 3D, though only stereo (come on Erato!). You can hear a lot of orchestral detail that makes all the difference. There are some unbelieveable, holy-shitballs sequences (like a lot of act two) that I would love to hear live some day. I feel like the last act just sort of ends, like it could have been more broad and impactful, but I'm not sure if that's a problem with the performance or Berlioz. On Amazon, of course, a commenter says this isn't the best one, because Les Troyens is supposed to be "grand", and that another one (out of print with Levine conducting) is the best one, even though it's recorded poorly, etc. Whether or not that's true, this performance really communicates, and makes the shape of the music so vivid. I'm keeping it.

Album Page