Les Troyens

The Trojans are celebrating apparent deliverance from ten years of siege by the Greeks (also named the Achaeans in the opera). They see the large wooden horse left by the Greeks, which they presume to be an offering to Pallas Athene. Unlike all the other Trojans, however, Cassandre is mistrustful of the situation. She foresees that she will not live to marry her fiancé, Chorèbe. Chorèbe appears and urges Cassandre to forget her misgivings. But her prophetic vision clarifies, and she foresees the utter destruction of Troy. When Andromaque silently walks in holding her son Astyanax by the hand, the celebration halts. A captive, Sinon, is brought in. He lies to King Priam and the crowd that he has deserted the Greeks, and that the giant wooden horse they have left behind was intended as a gift to the gods to ensure their safe voyage home. He says the horse was made so big that the Trojans would not be able to move it into their city, because if they did they would be invincible. This only makes the Trojans want the horse inside their city all the more. Énée then rushes on to tell of the devouring of the priest Laocoön by a sea serpent, after Laocoön had warned the Trojans to burn the horse. Énée interprets this as a sign of the goddess Athene's anger at the sacrilege. Against Cassandre's futile protests, Priam orders the horse to be brought within the city of Troy and placed next to the temple of Pallas Athene. There is suddenly a sound of what seems to be the clashing of arms f…

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