biography
| name: |
Berlioz, (Louis-)Hector
|
pronunciation:
[berliohz]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1803–69)
|
| biography:
| Composer, born in La Côte-Saint-André, SE France. He entered the Paris Conservatoire in 1826, where he fell in love with the actress Harriet Smithson, whom he subsequently married (1833, d.1854); the Symphonie Fantastique expresses his devotion to her. Gaining the Prix de Rome in 1830, he spent two years in Italy. After 1842 he won a brilliant reputation in Germany, Russia, and England, but on his return to France he failed to gain a hearing for his major works. The deaths of his second wife (Maria Recio, 1862) and his son, ill health, and his fruitless struggle to win a regular place in French music, clouded his later years. His compositions include the Grande messe des morts (1837), the dramatic symphony Roméo et Juliette (1839), the overture Le Carnival romain (1843), the cantata La Damnation de Faust (1846), and his comic opera Béatrice et Bénédict (1860–2). One of the founders of 19th-c programme music, he also produced seven books, including a treatise on orchestration and an autobiography. |
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