He went on to pursue doctoral studies, earning a Ph.D. in 1969 from Cambridge after researching the music of Berlioz for a dissertation consisting of a critical edition of Les Troyens.
In Act III of Berlioz's opera Les Troyens, a group of offstage trumpets plays a distorted-sounding fanfare along with cornets to create an unusual dramatic effect.
The sistrum was occasionally revived in 19th century Western orchestral music, appearing most prominently in Act 1 of the opera Les Troyens (1856–1858) by the French composer Hector Berlioz.
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Her vast repertory eventually grew to encompass Princess Eboli in Don Carlo which she sang at La Scala in Milan, in Salzburg and in Vienna, the title-role in Carmen, Ulrica (Un ballo in maschera), Monteverdi's Octavia (L'incoronazione di Poppea), Dido (Les Troyens), Kundry (Parsifal), Klytemnestra (Elektra) and contemporary roles by von Einem and Orff.
During his stay in Rome, Wiertz worked on his first great work, Les Grecs et les Troyens se disputant le corps de Patrocle ("Greeks and Trojans fighting for the body of Patroclus", finished in 1836), on a subject borrowed from canto XVII of Homer's Iliad.
Over the past few seasons, Jean-François Lapointe made his debut in the roles of Chorèbe, (Les Troyens) in Geneva, Escamillo, (Carmen), in Lausanne, France and in Japan, and of Zurga, (Les pêcheurs de perles), at the Opera of Toulon, in January 2009.