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Experiences
Hector Berlioz - the romantic rebel of hiw own era The unsuspected reader of Hector Berlioz' (1803-1869) biography will find out - with a certain amount of surprise - that his life contained all the range of human experiences and instances that one can expect from it : - A lot of music, theater, and performances in general : as a columnist in several Parisian newspapers, for years he often attended various events of the night-life of Paris and then he wrote his reviews and his impressions. Naturally, he had met all persons of social and artistic circles of Paris. In addition, he could get enthused or even thrilled by the audition or the read of an important artistic work.
- Frequent psychological ups and downs : his parents, and his family in general, had him destined for the career of either a doctor, or a cleric or even of an army officer ! He eventually became a musician but each difficulty during his youthful progress towards the musical top was leading to the aid grant being discontinued. Hector's family house was in small town Cote St. Andre and the financial aid coming from his family during his residence in Paris was quite essential. Moreover, as an adult, he also had great financial ups and downs that were "rectified" by many friends and admirers of his (even by ... Niccolo Paganini). All of this facts, anyway, certainly played their own part concerning the fatigue that the composer felt in the end of his life.
- Many many tours : from "Villa Medici" - aftermath of the "Prix de Rome" (Award of Rome) that he had been awarded - to his especially successful tours in Germany and Russia, after he had first visited almost the whole Europe not always with the most convincing results in his buggage. The city he loved more was perhaps Florence, with its artistic richness.
- Political turbulences : it is most characteristic that while Hector Berlioz, being in almost complete isolation along with the other competitors for the "Award of Rome", was composing the cantata "Sardanapale", work that eventually won the most-desired for him prize, did not even know that, those days, Paris was in great agitation - it was the period not long after the French Revolution and the political turbulences were especially during and intense ! It is also noticeable the fact that Hector Berlioz himself did not have any active participation in politics - he had to care about his Muse and his inspiration in first place !
- Friends and Enemies : there were sworn friends of Berlioz - especially the new generation of artists (often called "New France") who were trying to bring a renaissance to French arts by constantly "fluttering the dovecotes" : Hugo, Lamartine, Dumas, Gautier, Nerval etc. - there were also several spiteful (and rather unimportant as artists) enemies of his : Cerubini and the others. It is quite characteristic that his reputation - especially in the first stages of his career - was not matching up to his real artistic value because of his tries to innovate and his not following the conventional ways of music composition. The result was that the "rusty" Establishment of his epoch was constantly putting him various obstacles which usually were difficult for him to avoid, looking at other musicians and composers enjoying far more musical fruits than himself. Moreover, from the number of his contemporary composers, others considered him as an extraordinary innovator and others (perhaps the most of them - especially in his set-out !) did not recognize him as an artist of great value, being unable to accept his musical innovations as actions that improved music.
- Music and literary creation in general : loads of interesting and innovative compositions as structure, form and orchestration are concerned, a lot of arrangements and also various texts with faultless handling of the French language : librettos for both the cantatas and the operas that he wrote and also a notable series of neatly written reviews and technical articles. Special mention should be made for his "Memoirs" and his "Treatise of Instrumentation and Orchestration".
- Moments of great passion with the women of his life : he met his first wife (Irishwoman Hariet Smithson, famous actress that later eventually retired) 6 years before he finally married her after trying for a long time to attract her attention with his music and his artistic achievements (in the meantime, he was involved in an unlucky engagement that it could have lead to a double murder and a suicide !). His marriage gave him a child but his attachment with the Irishwoman was later to become rather problematic - this fact led him to a new relationship (with Maria Recio, an opera singer without any special talent, anyway) without discontinuing his first marriage, that was eventually formalized with a second marriage, long later, when his first wife died ! Needless to say that all these moments of passion gave him many inspiring instances to his creative work.  Generally speaking, Hector Berlioz lived moments of happiness and great glory, but, during his lifetime, he was unlucky enough to experience the death of his parents, his 2 siblings, several of his friends, his two wives and his beloved child as well. Especially after the latter event, his bitterness was unbearable ... Nevertheless, it is true that Hector Berlioz had an especially interesting and exciting life. Perhaps, other people had to live themselves 2 or 3 times in order to have the same experiences as him ! Especially, if one considers that the artist was constantly fighting against all the adversities and all the obstacles that were set by mediocre personalities of his era with power to influence situations but also by his own tempestuous idiosyncrasy.
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