Word: hectored
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...going to pretend that the performance of Hector Berlioz's heroic opera Les Troyens (The Trojans), which has just opened the new Opera de la Bastille in Paris, is anything near the composer's gigantic vision. But for the moment that does not matter. What does matter is what the production represented: a triumph for Myung-Whun Chung, the Opera's untested 37-year-old Korean-American music director; a triumph for Pierre Berge, the man who hired Chung; a triumph for Carlos Ott, the unknown Canadian architect; a triumph for French President Francois Mitterrand; and, most important...
There were times when the opening-night production, designed and directed in monumental style by Pier Luigi Pizzi, flirted dangerously with catastrophe. At one point, for example, materials fell from the overhead flies, causing the corpse of Hector to bring one hand protectively to his face. But the magnitude of the evening's triumph should not be underestimated. At a single stroke, it has made the reputation of Chung, up until now probably best known as the younger brother of violinist Kyung-Wha Chung. Against all odds, he assembled a cast whose only prominent members were sopranos Grace Bumbry (Cassandra...