Les Troyens

Les troyens (in English: The Trojans) is an epic tragédie-lyrique — a type of French opera — in five acts by Hector Berlioz. The libretto was written by Berlioz himself from Virgil's epic poem The Aeneid; the score was composed between 1856 and 1858. Les troyens is Berlioz's most ambitious work, the summation of his entire artistic career, but he did not live to see it performed in its entirety. Under the title Les troyens à  Carthage, the last three acts were premièred with many cuts at the Théâtre Lyrique (Théâtre-Lyrique du Châtelet) in Paris on 4 November 1863, with 21 repeat performances.
Berlioz began the libretto on 5 May 1856 and completed it toward the end of June 1856. He finished the full score on 12 April 1858. Berlioz had a keen affection for literature, and he had admired Virgil since his childhood. The Princess Carolyne zu Sayn-Wittgenstein was a prime motivator to Berlioz to compose this opera. In his memoirs, he gives a detailed account of how he embarked upon an opera based on The Aeneid: