Editing Hector Berlioz (section)

===Operas===
[[File:Les-troyens-à-Carthage-1892.jpg|thumb|''[[Les Troyens|Les Troyens à Carthage]]'' (the second part of ''Les Troyens'') at the Théâtre de l'Opéra-Comique-Châtelet, 1892|alt=Theatre poster showing figures in classical dress on a beach with a seascape in the background and a burning city in the foreground]]

None of Berlioz's three completed operas were written to commission, and theatre managers were not enthusiastic about staging them. Cairns writes that unlike Meyerbeer, who was rich, influential, and deferred to by opera managements, Berlioz was "an opera composer on sufferance, one who composed on borrowed time paid for with money that was not his but lent by a wealthy friend".<ref>Cairns (1999), p. 111</ref>

The three operas contrast strongly with one another. The first, ''[[Benvenuto Cellini (opera)|Benvenuto Cellini]]'' (1838), inspired by the memoirs of [[Benvenuto Cellini|the Florentine sculptor]], is an [[opera semiseria]], seldom staged until the 21st century, when there have been signs of a revival in its fortunes, with its first production at the [[Metropolitan Opera]] (2003) and a co-production by the [[English National Opera]] and the [[Opéra national de Paris]] (2014), but it remains the least often produced of the three operas.<ref>[http://operabase.com/visual.cgi?lang=en&is=opera&by=Berlioz "Statistics: Works by Berlioz"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181011133602/http://operabase.com/visual.cgi?lang=en&is=opera&by=Berlioz |date=11 October 2018 }}, Operabase. Retrieved 9 October 2018</ref> In 2008, the music critic Michael Quinn called it "an opera overflowing in every way, with musical gold bursting from each curve and crevice&nbsp;... a score of continually stupendous brilliance and invention" but agreed with the general view of the libretto: "incoherent&nbsp;... episodic, too epic to be comedy, too ironic for tragedy".<ref>Quinn, Michael. [https://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/berlioz-benvenuto-cellini "Berlioz, Benvenuto Cellini"], Gramophone, 2008 . Retrieved 19 October 2018. {{subscription}} {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181011133835/https://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/berlioz-benvenuto-cellini |date=11 October 2018 }}</ref> Berlioz welcomed Liszt's help in revising the work, streamlining the confusing plot; for his other two operas he wrote his own libretti.<ref>O'Neal (2018), p. 235</ref>

The epic ''[[Les Troyens]]'' (1858) is described by the musical scholar [[James Haar]] as "incontestably Berlioz's masterpiece",<ref>Haar, p. 92</ref> a view shared by many other writers.{{refn|Others who describe the work as "Berlioz's masterpiece" include [[Rupert Christiansen]],<ref>Christiansen, Rupert. [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/classicalmusic/3601350/Prom-47-Music-making-of-the-highest-order.html "Prom 47: Music-making of the highest order"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160229084844/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/classicalmusic/3601350/Prom-47-Music-making-of-the-highest-order.html |date=29 February 2016 }}, ''The Telegraph'', 26 August 2003. Retrieved 19 October 2018.</ref> [[Donald Jay Grout]],<ref>Grout and Williams, p. 9</ref> [[George Lascelles, 7th Earl of Harewood|Lord Harewood]],<ref>Harewood, p. 54</ref> [[D. Kern Holoman]],<ref>Holoman (2000), p. 174</ref> [[Roger Parker]]<ref>Parker, p. 152</ref> and [[Michael Kennedy (music critic)|Michael Kennedy]].<ref name=odm>Kennedy, Michael, and Joyce Bourne Kennedy. [http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199578108.001.0001/acref-9780199578108-e-1008 "Berlioz, Louis Hector"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181011133631/http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199578108.001.0001/acref-9780199578108-e-1008 |date=11 October 2018 }}, ''The Oxford Dictionary of Music'', Oxford University Press, 2013. Retrieved 19 October 2018. {{subscription}}</ref>|group= n}} Berlioz based the text on [[Virgil]]'s ''[[Aeneid]]'', depicting the fall of [[Troy]] and subsequent travels of the hero. Holoman describes the poetry of the libretto as old fashioned for its day, but effective and at times beautiful.<ref name=grovetroyens/> The opera consists of a series of self-contained numbers, but they form a continuous narrative, with the orchestra playing a vital part in expounding and commenting on the action. Although the work plays for five hours (including intervals) it is no longer the normal practice to present it across two evenings. ''Les Troyens'', in Holoman's view, embodies the composer's artistic creed: the union of music and poetry holds "incomparably greater power than either art alone".<ref name=grovetroyens/>

The last of Berlioz's operas is the Shakespearean comedy ''[[Béatrice et Bénédict]]'' (1862), written, the composer said, as a relaxation after his efforts with ''Les Troyens''. He described it as "a caprice written with the point of a needle".<ref name=c2012/> His libretto, based on ''[[Much Ado About Nothing]]'', omits Shakespeare's darker sub-plots and replaces the clowns [[Dogberry]] and Verges with an invention of his own, the tiresome and pompous music master Somarone.<ref>Rushton (1982–1983), pp. 106 and 108</ref> The action focuses on the sparring between the two leading characters, but the score contains some gentler music, such as the nocturne-duet "Nuit paisible et sereine", the beauty of which, Cairns suggests, matches or surpasses the love music in ''Roméo'' or ''Les Troyens''.<ref>Cairns, David. [http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/19th-february-1960/16/opera "Opera: The Berlioz Question"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181011214455/http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/19th-february-1960/16/opera |date=11 October 2018 }}, ''The Spectator'', 19 February 1960, p. 16. Retrieved 18 October 2018.</ref> Cairns writes that ''Béatrice et Bénédict'' "has wit and grace and lightness of touch. It accepts life as it is. The opera is a divertissement, not a grand statement".<ref name=c2012>Cairns, David. [https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dw.asp?dc=W15285_GBDGQ1400401 "Béatrice et Bénédict"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181011133611/https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dw.asp?dc=W15285_GBDGQ1400401 |date=11 October 2018 }}, Hyperion Records, 2012. Retrieved 19 October 2018.</ref>

''[[La Damnation de Faust]]'', although not written for the theatre, is sometimes staged as an opera.<ref>Haar, p. 89</ref>