Epic opera: how to film Berlioz's Les Troyens for the small screen

The size and scale of Berlioz's Les Troyens make it – after Wagner's Ring – one of the most ambitious operas to stage. David McVicar took up the challenge at the Royal Opera House last year – its first new production of the work in 30 years – with the impressive sets and stage features including a fire-spitting Trojan horse that took the props department a year to build. But how do you capture that drama for the small screen? As the DVD is released by Opus Arte, Gramophone spoke to François Roussillon, director for the screen, about the challenges of filming opera for DVD... 

When and where did your involvement in the production begin? 

The first step was to see the model showing, where David McVicar explained his artistic project to the Royal Opera House team. It was very interesting to see things from the very start, to see his intention – you then have a very clear idea of how the production will look on stage. It's a very challenging first step for me because I’m just thinking about what the staging will be and it's very important also to understand the space where the staging will take place, and all the big technical challenges. This production had amazing stage effects, it was huge – including this big horse coming towards the audience, spitting flames.

Do you have to decide whether you’re going to try to capture that moment as a record of what happened in the theatre – or try and turn it into a film?

Of course what is very exciting with a David McVicar production is that sense of cinematography he has: details, but at the same time on a very spectacular scale. So the idea is to give the strength of the powerful image on the screen, but at the same time always making sure you are not putting the story to one side, because something is always told about the character and you must clearly follow what the dramatic intentions are. In a sense, 19th century opera was prefigured the big films to come – and it's not only Berlioz, but also Meyerbeer or the big operas of Verdi. It was the most unique show you could ever see at that time – it was something unbelievable. Now we have movies, of course, but at the time it was the peak of what you can expect on stage, dramatically and artistically.

What about the sections which are less expansive, and more personal, such as some of the longer arias?

My feeling was that I like very much the idea, which is rather cinematographic, of just following the characters, just to keep the intensity of it and get a grip on their emotion without doing so many cuts. There are so many exciting, challenging and beautiful moments to capture.

Filming an opera as a film, with actors acting for the camera only, is one thing. But of course we are in a theatre here, and we can’t change that reality of the theatre. I must say that nowadays we have fantastic performers who can stand being filmed in close-up, and there are things people can hardly see when they are sitting in an auitorium. David McVicar is such a fantastic director, he has such a sense for detail.

How does the production's lighting affect the filming? 

We prepare this in advance. And this is very important – we are trying to follow the very early stages of the lighting process. Our cinematographer was there at the very beginning, working with the lighting designer, just to try to make things compatible with the camera from the start. Of course they have to be able to follow their own ideas because it’s designed for the stage, but it gives us the ability to prepare it much better. From that we can do adjustments to make it more effective for the camera. So the idea is not to change the lighting at all, but to give the same experience that the people in the auditorium get. And that’s not easy, because the lens of a camera is not like the human eye, with its ability to adapt. 

How important are the audience when filming an opera?

Of course it’s a kind of dialogue between people on stage and people in the auditorium, and people react – we are in a theatre and that’s very important. We can’t believe that we are somewhere else, but in a way with your own imagination you can construct another world during that performance: you go to Troy, you go to Carthage.

I love Les Troyens. It's such a magnificent work, and for me I wanted to pay tribute to the Royal Opera House because the first big productions we got of Les Troyens came from England, with Sir Colin Davis. So I was deeply moved to be there to film Les Troyens because of that. 

Berlioz's Les Troyens - an introduction

Royal Opera House music director, and conductor of Les Troyens, Antonio Pappano introduces the opera – the films include interviews with leading soloists from the production Anna Caterina Antonacci (Cassandra) and Eva-Maria Westbroek (Dido).