5.02.+Hector+Berlioz

__**BIOGRAPHY OF //HECTOR BERLIOZ//**__  Louis Hector Berlioz (December 11, 1803 - March 8, 1869) was a French Romantic composer best known for the Symphonie Fantastique, first performed in 1830, and for his Requiem of 1837, with its tremendous resources that include four antiphonal brass choirs. Berlioz was born in France at La Côte St. André, between Lyon and Grenoble.

He became identified early on with the French romantic movement. Among his friends were writers such as Alexandre Dumas, Victor Hugo and Honoré de Balzac. Later, Théophile Gautier would write:

"Hector Berlioz seems to me to form with Hugo and Delacroix, the Trinity of Romantic Art" Berlioz is said to have been innately romantic, experiencing emotions deeply from early childhood. This manifested itself in his weeping at passages of Virgil as a child, and later in a series of love affairs. His at first unrequited love for the Irish Shakespearean actress Harriet Smithson was the inspiration for his Symphonie Fantastique. He eventually married Smithson, but the relationship quickly fell apart.

An engagement with Marie Moke, after Smithson had rejected him at first, was broken off when Moke's mother married her off to the the piano maker Pleyel. Berlioz, residing in Rome at the time under a Prix de Rome scholarship, planned to ride back to Paris dressed as a chambermaid, kill Moke, her mother and her fiancé, and commit suicide. He got as far as Nice before giving up the idea.

Berlioz had a keen affection for literature, and many of his best compositions are inspired by literary works. For The Damnation of Faust, Berlioz drew on Goethe's Faust, for Harold in Italy, he drew on Byron's Childe Harold, and for Benvenuto Cellini he drew on Cellini's own autobiography. For Romeo et Juliette he turned to Shakespeare's tragedy of the similar name. For his magnum opus, the monumental opera Les Troyens, Berlioz turned to Virgil's epic poem The Aeneid. For his last opera, the comic opera Béatrice et Bénédict, Berlioz prepared a libretto based loosely on Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing.

Apart from the many literary influences, Berlioz also championed Beethoven who was at the time unknown in France. The performance of the Eroica symphony in Paris seems to have been a turning point for Berlioz' compositions. Next to Beethoven, Berlioz worshipped Gluck, Weber and Spontini.

During his lifetime, Berlioz was more famous as a conductor than a composer; he regularly toured Germany and England where he conducted operas and symphonic music, both his own and music composed by others.

The music of Berlioz enjoyed a revival during the 1960s and 1970s, due in large part to the efforts of British conductor Colin Davis, who recorded his entire oeuvre, bringing a number of Berlioz's lesser-known works to the light. Davis's recording of Les Troyens was the first complete recording of that work. The work, which Berlioz never saw staged in its entirety during his life, is now revived regularly. In addition to the Symphonie Fantastique, other works of his currently in the standard orchestral repertoire are his "légende dramatique" La Damnation de Faust and "symphonie dramatique" Romeo et Juliette (both large scale works for mixed voices and orchestra), and the song cycle Les Nuits d'Été (originally for voice and piano, later with an orchestral accompaniment).

While Berlioz is best known as a composer, he was also a prolific writer, and supported himself for many years writing musical criticism. He wrote in a bold, vigorous style, at times imperious and sarcastic. Evenings With the Orchestra (1852) is a scathing satire of provincial musical life in 19th century France. Berlioz's Memoirs (1870) paints a magisterial portrait of the Romantic era through the eyes of one of its chief protagonists.

A pedagogic work, The Treatise on Modern Instrumentation and Orchestration established his reputation as a master of orchestration. The work was closely studied by Mahler and Strauss and served as the foundation for a subsequent textbook by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov who as a music student attended the concerts Berlioz conducted in Moscow and St Petersburg. "Before the visits of Berlioz," wrote music critic Norman Lebrecht there was no Russian music. His was the paradigm that inspired the genre. Tchaikovsky raided the Symphonie Fantastique like a tuck-shop for his third symphony. Mussorgsky died with a copy of the Berlioz Treatise on his bed.

Hector Berlioz is buried in the Cimetiere de Montmartre with his two wives, Harriet Smithson (died 1854) and Marie Recio (died 1862). In 2003, the bicentennary of his birth, a proposal was made to remove his remains to the Panthéon but it was blocked by President Jacques Chirac in a political dispute over Berlioz's worthiness as a symbol of the glory of France in comparison as such figures as Andre Malraux, Jean Jaures and Alexandre Dumas. In his land of birth, Berlioz's still remains something of the neglected prophet.


 * __WORKS :__**

  // Les francs-juges Benvenuto Cellini //// La nonne sanglante //// Les Troyens Béatrice et Bénédict Symphonie fantastique Harold en Italie Roméo et Juliette Grande symphonie funèbre et triomphale Waverley Le Roi Lear Rob Roy Le Carnaval romain Le Corsaire Rêverie et caprice, para violín y orquesta La Mort d’Orphée Herminie Cléopâtre Sardanapale Messe solenelle Grande Messe des morts Te Deum La Damnation de Faust L'Enfance du Christ La révolution grecque: scéne héroïque Huits scènes de Faust Le ballet des ombres Lélio, ou le retour à la vie Sara la baigneuse Le cinq mai Hymne à la France Chant des chemins de fer Tristia La dépit de la bergère Le maure jaloux Amitié reprends ton empire Pleure, pauvre Colette Canon libre à quinte Le montagnard exilé Toi qui l'aimas, verse des pleurs Nocturne Le pêcheur Le roi de Thulé Le coucher du soleil Hélène La belle voyageuse L'origine de la harpe Adieu Bessy Elégie en prose La captive Le jeune pâtre breton Les champs Sara la baigneuse Je crois en vous Le chant des Bretons Chansonette Les nuits d'été: Villanelle, Le spectre de la rose, Sur les lagunes, L'absence, Au cimitière, L'île inconnue La mort d'Ophélie La belle Isabeau Le chasseur danois Zaïde Le trébuchet Nessun maggior piacere Le matin // // Petit oiseau  __**Béatrice et Bénédict:**__

Béatrice et Bénédict is a comic opera in two acts by Hector Berlioz. It was first performed at the Theater der Stadt, Baden-Baden on August 9 , 1862. Béatrice et Bénédict is rather infrequently performed and never became part of the standard operatic repertoire. There are several recordings of the opera, including a recommended one from 1981. The overture is frequently heard on the symphonic concert stage. The action happens in Messina, Italy.

__**VIDEOS:**__ media type="youtube" key="F-2od2JRYF0" height="344" width="425"  // media type="youtube" key="y0M4S_q6_Mo" height="344" width="425"


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