A riveting ‘Troyens’ at the Met

Any new production of Berlioz’s glorious epic opera “Les Troyens” (The Trojans) is a special occasion. The sprawling size, ambition and originality of the French composer’s lyric version of Virgil’s “Aeneid” guarantees that. So the fact that the Metropolitan Opera undertook only the second production of “Troyens” in its history Monday night was enough to make it the most eagerly awaited event of the company’s season. Moreover, it would serve as the spectacular kickoff of an extensive four-month, citywide celebration of Berlioz’s 200th birthday this year.

But shivering, jittery New York opera lovers willing to brace yet another snowstorm and deposit their briefcases and bags with security Monday had additional reasons to be in a high state of anticipation. There was the well-liked heroic tenor, Ben Heppner, returning to the Met after a year off to recover from vocal problems. The production also marked the first starring role at the Met for Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, arguably the most dramatically compelling singer now before the public.

And stage director Francesca Zambello, was back for the first time since her controversial 1992 Met debut. Some of the company’s more partisan fans appear to have lost none of their outrage over her provocative feminist interpretation of “Lucia di Lammermoor,” and they undoubtedly began rehearsing their catcalls the moment her participation was announced. If they knew of her irritating, postmodern, lustily booed “Troyens” at Los Angeles Opera a dozen years ago, that was all the more fuel for the ire.

The new “Troyens” is not an all-out triumph. But it is a partial one. Hunt Lieberson lives up to expectations and then some. She embodies the power, the pathos, the warm humanity of the Carthaginian queen, Dido, to an exceptional degree, and her luscious, full mezzo-soprano voice seemed to fill every inch of the huge auditorium. Heppner, ardent and much slimmed, sounded convincingly fresh, even if he is not entirely out of vocal hot water. His voice cracked twice in the last act.

Zambello brings ideas to “Troyens,” and the good ones make for riveting, magical theater. She recently staged “Aladdin” at Disney’s California Adventure, and she is apparently not done with the magic carpet ride. During the orchestral interlude “The Royal Hunt and Storm,” during which Dido and Aeneas take shelter in a cave, flying dancers on wires enact the love scene. It’s corny, but accompanied by James Levine’s radiant Met orchestra, these exquisite, entwining lovers floating over the stage are hard to resist.

Even more bewitching is the love duet sung by Hunt Lieberson and Heppner, which approached pure operatic nirvana. With Levine producing some of the most sensual playing I’ve ever heard from an opera orchestra as it brought to vivid life Berlioz’s imitations of desert night sounds, the singers glided along on a movable stage, their voices blending into a single gorgeous, tender tone. James F. Ingalls’ enchanted lighting completed the seduction. It is moments like this that opera-goers live for.

Berlioz divided “Troyens” into two parts, which are so substantial that they are sometimes staged as individual operas. The first, “The Fall of Troy,” revolves around the Trojan princess Cassandra, who fails to convince her people that the Trojan horse poses a terrorist threat. Zambello creates some extraordinary effects with the large chorus becoming the huddled, terrified masses. As Cassandra, Deborah Voigt did not have one of her best nights. She sounded thin at first, seeming to struggle not to veer slightly flat. Her soaring soprano was again thrilling as she led the Trojan women to mass suicide, but by then her overacting had become wearisome.

Nor did Troy look very appealing. The set, by the late Maria Bjornson, was untypically dull for a designer whose “Phantom of the Opera” set has entered theater lore. The main visual element for both parts of the opera was a bland thatched backdrop with large semicircle cutout that could be filled by abstracted ship’s sails, golden wheat or Roman architectural drawings.

The Trojans were a drab people in this production, but the Carthaginians in the opera’s second part, “The Trojans in Carthage,” were delightful, utopian farmers, even if they appeared slightly cultish in elegant white gowns. They wave colorful banners and parade carrying miniature ships and buildings. In L.A., a similar attempt at a kind of friendly splendor proved downright embarrassing, but here, with the Met’s full resources and far less flamboyant costumes, it was charming, at least until Doug Varone’s charmless choreography took over. Zambello, however, was full of small, entertaining diversions, especially turning Aeneas’ young son, Ascanius, into a mischievous, amorous scamp.

The cast is large, and the Met has assembled an excellent one that included Dwayne Croft’s passionate Coroebus, Elena Zaremba’s compassionate Anna, Robert Lloyd’s dignified Narbal and Jossie Perez’s delightful Ascanius. Levine’s command of the opera has become more magisterial and probing, if slightly less exciting, than when he first conducted it at the Met 20 years ago.

Yes, Zambello was booed for a production that, by international standards, was thoughtfully tame and certainly toned down from her L.A. adventure. After all, just look at “Troyens” in London these days. The current English National Opera production of Part 1 is set in riot-torn Los Angeles, where cowboys and Indians reportedly roam, and Inuit terrorists invade. That production comes to San Francisco Opera in the 2004-05 season.

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‘Les Troyens’

Where: Metropolitan Opera, Lincoln Center, New York

When: Through March 22; broadcast live Feb. 22, 9:30 a.m., on KUSC-FM (91.5)

Price: $33-$195

Contact: (212) 362-6000