Born:
December 11, 1803; La Côte-Saint-André, France
Died:
March 8, 1869; Paris, France
Nationality:
France
Occupation:
Composer, Conductor
Hector Berlioz was a French
Romantic composer who was born on December 11, 1803 and died on March 8, 1869.
His works include orchestral works such as the Symphonie fantastique and Harold
in Italy, choral works including the Requiem and L'Enfance du Christ, his three
operas, Benvenuto Cellini, Les Troyens and Béatrice et Bénédict, and works of
hybrid genres such as the "dramatic symphony" Roméo et Juliette and
the "dramatic legend" La Damnation de Faust.
Berlioz (1845)
Born as the eldest son of a
doctor's family, Berlioz had to follow his father to major in medicine, and
went to a medical college in Paris before defying his family by choosing music
as a profession.
He refused to follow traditional rules and formulas for music,
resulting in conflict with conservative musical establishment of Paris.
However, he also briefly moderated his own style sufficiently to win the Prix
de Rome, France's premier music prize in 1830.
Berlioz, Gustave Courbet (1850)
The opinion for Berlioz was
divided over the years between those who consider him as an original genius and
those who think his music as lacking in form and coherence.
At the age of 24, Berlioz fell in
love with Harriet Smithson, a famous Irish Shakespearean actress and married
her after seven years of courtship. Harriet inspired Berlioz's first major
success, the Symphonie fantastique, in which an idealized depiction of her
occurs throughout.
Harriet Smithson
Berlioz completed three operas, the
first of which, Benvenuto Cellini, ended in complete failure. The second opera,
the huge epic Les Troyens (The Trojans), was so large in scale that it had
never been entirely staged during his lifetime. His last opera, Béatrice et
Bénédict, based on Shakespeare's comedy “Much Adoe About Nothing” was
successful at its premiere, but was not included in the regular operatic
repertoire.
Poster for the premiere of Benvenuto Cellini (September 1838)
Berlioz, who had little success in France as a composer, increasingly
turned to conducting, gained an international reputation. He was highly
regarded as a composer and a conductor in Germany, England and Russia.
Musée Hector-Berlioz
He wrote
musical journalism throughout much of his career to supplement his earnings.
Some of them have been preserved in the form of books, including his
"Treatise on Instrumentation (1844)," which influenced the 19th and
20th centuries.
Treatise on Instrumentation, Hector Berlioz
Berlioz died in Paris at the age of 65.
Grave in Montmartre
Berlioz monument, La Côte-Saint-André, France
Thank you.
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