Hector Berlioz wins the coveted Prix de…
December 1830 CE
Hector Berlioz wins the coveted Prix de Rome in 1830, on his fifth attempt, with his cantata Sardanapalus; he travels to Rome courtesy of the government.
In his programmatic Symphonie fantastique, premiering on December 5 same year to an enthusiastic reception and inspired by Berlioz’s adoration of Irish actress Harriet Smithson and Thomas De Quincey’s Confessions of an Opium Eater, Berlioz, making imaginative use of the large orchestra in program music, portrays the opium-induced imaginings of a frustrated artist.
A symphony in five movements instead of the classical four, features a short, recurrent theme (idée fixe) heard throughout the composition, to symbolize the presence of the “loved one.”
The work is destined to be Berlioz’s most famous.