Hector Berlioz’s opera depicting the love of Aeneas and Dido is Les Troyens.
The French title means “The Trojans.” Berlioz wrote the five-act opera in the 1850s, basing its story mainly on Virgil’s Aeneid. It is divided into two large parts: The Capture of Troy and The Trojans at Carthage.
The first part portrays Troy’s destruction and Aeneas’s departure. The second follows his arrival in Carthage, where he falls in love with Queen Dido before destiny compels him to leave and seek the future Roman homeland. Dido’s final tragedy gives the opera its emotional climax.
Berlioz did not see the complete opera performed during his lifetime. Parts were staged in Paris in 1863, while the two-part work received a complete performance only later. Les Troyens is admired for its monumental scale, choruses, orchestral writing, and demanding central roles.