Harriet Smithson
Actor
Review: Symphonies, life stories in harmony...their creators. Berlioz's "Symphonie fantastique," the record of the composer's romantic obsession with the Irish actress Harriet Smithson, leads the charge, followed by the nostalgic reveries of Ives' "Holidays" Symphony. Shostakovich's... In this article: Michael Tilson Thomas, Fifth Symphony, Hector Berlioz, Symphonie, Harriet Smithson, San Francisco Symphony, PBS, and New England |
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Yahoo! News | September 17, 2009
NY Philharmonic begins new era with Alan Gilbert (AP)
...then is led to the scaffold, loses his head, only to cavort with witches. (In real life, Berlioz married Smithson three years after finishing the symphony.) Gilbert led an energetic account and chose to include the repeats of the...
In this article: Alan Gilbert, New York Philharmonic, Magnus Lindberg, Renee Fleming, Hector Berlioz, Olivier Messiaen, and Leonard Bernstein
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Wikipedia | January 07, 2009
The Belle's Stratagem
...Stratagem. Its double plotline comes to a denouement at the masquerade ball of the last act. The role of the ingenue heroine, Letitia Hardy, proved to be a successful vehicle in Paris for Harriet Smithson, who infatuated Hector Berlioz.
In this article: The Beaux' Stratagem, George Farquhar, Hannah Cowley, Hector Berlioz, and Paris
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www.washingtonpost.com | December 01, 2007
An Affair Fantastique
That beacon leads Berlioz to write his masterpiece, but when Harriet hears the work, she finds her role of muse daunting: "For him, I am the great love of the ages, to be thundered out to posterity by a hundred-piece orchestra. How can...
In this article: Hector Berlioz, Ophelia, Juliet, Paris, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, and Opium
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www.npr.org
Berlioz's Unbridled 'Symphonie Fantastique'
...is set at a witches' Sabbath. October 27, 2009 - On Sept. 11, 1827, Hector Berlioz attended a performance of Hamlet at the Paris Odeon in which the Irish actress Harriet Smithson played the role of Ophelia. Overwhelmed by her beauty and...
In this article: Hector Berlioz, Orchestration, Ophelia, Hamlet, Opium, and Colin Davis
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Symphonie fantastique
...of Shakespeare's Hamlet with her in the role of Ophelia, on 11 September 1827. He sent her numerous love letters, all of which went unanswered. When she left Paris they had still not met. He then wrote the symphony as a way to...
In this article: Hector Berlioz, Opium, Robert Schumann, Leonard Bernstein, Paris, Ophelia, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, and Hamlet
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Lelio
...via the consolations of music and literature. Berlioz later revised his intentions, making it seem as if both the symphony and Lelio were about Harriet Smithson (she later became his wife). The symphony uses programme music to describe a...
In this article: Hector Berlioz, William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Suicide, Hamlet, Opium, Paris Conservatoire, and Andre Deutsch
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Romeo et Juliette (Berlioz)
...and Juliet (in David Garrick's edited version) at the Odeon Theatre in Paris. The cast included Harriet Smithson, who also inspired Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique. In his Memoirs, Berlioz describes the electrifying effect of the drama: The...
In this article: Hector Berlioz, Romeo et Juliette, Romeo, Romeo and Juliet, Juliet, Emile Deschamps, William Shakespeare, and Niccolo Paganini
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Harriet Smithson
...to Paris in 1828 and 1832, first with William Charles Macready. There she aroused immense enthusiasm as Desdemona, Virginia, Juliet and Jane Shore, in the tragedy by Nicholas Rowe. She had a host of admirers, among them Hector Berlioz, whom she...
In this article: Hector Berlioz, Ophelia, Yellow fever, William Charles Macready, and Nicholas Rowe
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Description from Wikipedia:
Henrietta Constance (Harriet) Smithson (1800 - 3 March 1854) was an Irish actress, the first wife of Hector Berlioz, and the inspiration for his Symphonie Fantastique.
She was the daughter of a theatrical manager. She made her first stage appearance in 1815 at the Crow Street Theatre, Dublin, as Albina Mandeville in Frederick Reynolds's The Will. Three years later she made her first London appearance at Drury Lane as Letitia Hardy in The Belle's Stratagem.
She had no particular success in England; but in Paris, in 1828 and 1832, whither she first went with William Charles Macready, she aroused immense enthusiasm as Desdemona, Virginia, Juliet and Jane Shore, in the tragedy by Nicholas Rowe. She had a host of admirers, among them Hector Berlioz, whom she married in 1833. They separated in 1840.
Hector Berlioz first discovered her at the Odeon performing the roles of Juliet and Ophelia and immediately fell in love with her, sending her letters despite their never having met. For many years this continued until the 1832 performance of his Symphonie Fantastique, when he discovered a mutual acquaintance of theirs and offered him a box of tickets. She ended up coming to the performance, realizing that the symphony was about her (as was more than hinted at by the program notes) and eventually they married. After all this obsession, however, their marriage eventually failed.
At the time of her marriage her popularity was already over and she was deeply in debt. A benefit was given her, but she had the mortification of seeing a rival applauded when she herself was coldly received. She retired from the stage.
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