Hector Berlioz promotes a concert in which…

Hector Berlioz promotes a concert in which his Symphonie fantastique (which he had extensively revised in Italy) and Le retour à la vie are performed.

Attending, among others, were Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, père, Heinrich Heine, Niccolò Paganini, Franz Liszt, Frédéric Chopin, George Sand, Alfred de Vigny, Théophile Gautier, Jules Janin and Harriet Smithson.

At this time, Berlioz also had met playwright Ernest Legouvé who becomes a lifelong friend.

This followed fifteen months spent in Italy, nearly killing his former fiancée’s family: after discovering a deeper romantic side of himself that will continue to affect his music forever, he had returned to Paris in November 1832 to promote his music.

A few days after the performance, Berlioz and the Irish actress Harriet Smithson, the inspiration for his Symphonie Fantastique, are finally introduced and immediately formed a relationship.

Despite Berlioz not understanding spoken English and Harriet not knowing any French, they marry in a civil ceremony at the British Embassy on October 3, 1833, with Liszt as one of the witnesses.