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Hector
Berlioz
(1803
- 1869)
Berlioz
was born in France at La Cote-Saint-Andre near Lyon on 11 December 1803.
Hector Berlioz was considered to be an outsider as far as the French
musical establishment was concerned and not all his works were well
received.
Against
his family's wishes Berlioz abandoned his medical studies in favor of a
career as a composer.
While
he was still a student at the Paris Conservatoire, he fell in love with
the Irish actress, Harriet Smithson and they were married a year
later.
Berlioz
loved literature and some of his greatest works were inspired by the
writings of Byron, Shakespeare and Goethe.
The
years following his second marriage to the singer, Marie Recio, were the
happiest and most productive of his life.
He
spent much of his time traveling in Europe were he was admired as a
conductor, critic and writer.
On
8 March 1869, Hector Berlioz died at his Paris home; No.4 rue de Calais.
His
funeral was held at the recently completed Eglise de la Trinite and he was
buried in Montmartre Cemetery with his two wives, who were exhumed and
re-buried next to him.
Works
The
meadow scene in the Symphonie Fantastique of 1830, an orchestral work that
contains autobiographical elements and suggests new paths in composition,
expresses the great "yearning" underlying the romantic
imagination.
His
interest in Shakespeare had a result in the dramatic symphony Romeo and
Juliet.
The
overture Le Carnaval Romain (Roman Carnival) was derived from his opera
Benvenuto Cellini, while Le Corsaire has at least Byronic overtones.
He
wrote the opera Les Troyens (The Trojans), later divided into two parts,
The Capture of Troy and The Trojans in 1858.
Excerpts
from the opera, the music for the Royal Hunt and Storm, in which the
Carthaginian Queen Dido and her Trojan lover Aeneas realize their love for
each other, can be heard in concert programs.
Other
important works by Berlioz include the Eight Scenes from Faust, later
revised as The Damnation of Faust, one of the most original of a number
compositions based on Goethe's drama.
The
Christmas oratorio L'enfance du Christ (The Childhood of Christ) is a
significant and characteristic work, with the remarkable and extravagantly
orchestrated Grande Messe des Morts (Requiem) with its brass bands and
massed choirs.
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