Les Troyens (in English: The Trojans) is a French opera in five acts by Hector Berlioz. The libretto was written by Berlioz himself, based on Virgil's epic poem The Aeneid. Written between 1856 and 1858, Les Troyens was Berlioz's largest and most ambitious work, the summation of his entire artistic career, but he never saw the opera performed in its entirety during his lifetime. Under the title Les Troyens à Carthage, the last three acts were premièred, with many cuts, at the Théâtre Lyrique in Paris, on 4 November 1863. It was repeated 21 times.
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 admired Virgil since his childhood. In his memoirs, he gives a detailed account of how he embarked upon an opera based on The Aeneid:
On 3 May, 1861, Berlioz wrote in a letter: "I am sure that I have written a great work, greater and nobler than anything...
