Music and Time Annotation << Back Antique Myth in Berlioz’s Opera Epic «Les Troyens» M. Strelkova The paper covers the history of creation, complicated scenic destiny and characteristics of the drama of Berlioz’s opera «Les Troyens» (1858) which is one of the masterpieces of the 19th century musical theatre. In spite of it the opera has not received adequate coverage in the Russian musicological literature and is unfamiliar for the Russian public. The peculiarities of the epic opera composition formed due to the ancient mythological subject of Virgil’s poem «Aeneid» are described. Special attention is paid to the images of two tragic characters, Cassandra and Dido. The implementing of Gluck traditions and Berlioz’s innovations in the genre of opera are also discussed. The stagings of the opera realized in the 21st century show actuality of the opera and its characters. On the occasion of the composer’s bicentenary the opera was staged in the Paris Théâtre du Châtelet Keywords: H. Berlioz, «Les Troyens», Vergil, «Aeneid», opera, myth, libretto Contacts: E-mail: strelkova-88@list.ru Pp. 12-18.