Les Troyens advice

Hi, the NYT (specifically Tommasini) raved about this so I went to the Met box office to get tickets Sunday (and braved the blizzard). Of course my friends will now hate me for dragging them to this opera.

I've listened to bits of the new Davis/LSO recording and been wondering how I can get through this without going insane

Wear comfortable shoes. Are you in orchestra or family standing room?

All of 'em. (Just kidding, but not really. I suppose if you had to pick the 'ultimate highlight,' it would be the septet and love duet in what the score calls Act IV - though the Met is probably not providing more than two intermissions.)

Before the opera starts, or after it stops. You can get expensive sandwiches at the bar, too, and if you cleverly conceal them you can pack your own snacks in your coat.

You can get expensive drinks at the bar, too.

Yes.

Anyone who reports enthusiastically about the Boulez programs at Carnegie the other week does not come across at philistine (unlike the couple who noisily walked out during Boulez's Notations). All I can say is that this is IMHO one of the very greatest of French operas, and I'm not planning to miss so much as a quarter-rest next Saturday.

ok many will disagree but I would skip Act IV. Most of it is orchestral and chorus. If you can you should get the last 10 minutes of it for the Nuit d' ivresse duet.

And the equally fine or perhaps even better quintet that precedes the septet and duet. And Didon's music in the final scene. And the quayside duet for Didon and Enee. And more besides including the octet in the first scene.

-david gable

Fair enough. I was thinking (though I didn't specify) of the quintet and septet as more or less a unit - that is, everything from the ending of the ballet music, or rather the ending of Iopas' song soon after, through the end of the act. But no, I would not miss the fourth act, and if you decide to skip out for the 'orchestral music,' you'll find the ushers won't let you back for the great stuff later.

I wouldn't miss a single note or rest if I had the chance

What some of us used to refer to as 'Side 8' of Les troyens!!!!!! (Since it included the unbeatable series of quintet, septet, and duet (and was only spoiled with the advent of that crashing bore, Mercure.)

-david gable

Another thing I forgot to mention: just move to some good empty seats when they become available.

-david gable

This is another unfortunate if understandable development: dispensing with intermissions. The longer the opera, the more you need them and the less likely you are to get them.

-david gable

Family circle. I asked the person at the box office where the sound is better, and he said 'upstairs'

You're going tonight??????!!!!!!!!!! in this storm? Oy veh, you'll probably have your pick of seats and if you're lucky the orchestra will show up.

No, no, no, stay to the end!! You don't want to miss Didon's death scene; and if they get the final tableau right it could be thrilling, with the Carthaginians facing the audience hurling imprecations at the departing Aeneas, while a magnificent image of the Eternal City rises in the