Hector Berlioz Composer
Season 26/27 Artist

Biography

Hector Berlioz was born on December 11, 1803, in La Côte-Saint-André (Isère). The son of a cultured physician, he received a solid education in French and Latin literature, geography, and music. After beginning medical studies in Paris, he decided to devote himself entirely to music, despite his family’s disapproval. In 1826, he entered the Paris Conservatoire, where he studied under composers Jean-François Lesueur and Anton Reicha.

In 1827, a performance of Shakespeare’s Hamlet at the Théâtre de l’Odéon in Paris deeply inspired him. He also discovered Goethe through Gérard de Nerval’s translation of Faust, and composed the Eight Scenes from Faust (a precursor to The Damnation of Faust). After several attempts, he won the Prix de Rome in 1830 for The Death of Sardanapalus. That same year, he composed the Symphonie fantastique. In the following years, he wrote the Grande Messe des morts (1837), Benvenuto Cellini (whose premiere at the Paris Opera in 1838 was unsuccessful), and the dramatic symphony Romeo and Juliet (1839).

The early 1840s saw the creation of the Grande Symphonie funèbre et triomphale (1840), Les Nuits d’été (1841), Le Carnaval romain (1844), and The Damnation of Faust (premiered without success at the Opéra-Comique in 1846). Berlioz also began writing a series of articles for the Revue et Gazette musicale—which would form the basis of his Grand Treatise on Instrumentation, published in 1843—and, in 1849, his Memoirs. He undertook numerous journeys abroad, where his music was better received than in Paris. His career continued with L’Enfance du Christ (1854), the opera Les Troyens (considered one of his masterpieces, completed in 1858), and the opéra-comique Béatrice et Bénédict (1862). Berlioz died in Paris on March 8, 1869.