Editing Hector Berlioz (section)

===1830–1832: Prix de Rome===
Berlioz was largely apolitical, and neither supported nor opposed the [[July Revolution]] of 1830, but when it broke out he found himself in the middle of it. He recorded events in his ''Mémoires'':

{{quote|I was finishing my cantata when the revolution broke out&nbsp;... I dashed off the final pages of my orchestral score to the sound of stray bullets coming over the roofs and pattering on the wall outside my window. On the 29th I had finished, and was free to go out and roam about Paris till morning, pistol in hand.<ref>Berlioz, p. 131</ref>}}

The cantata was ''La Mort de Sardanapale'', with which he won the Prix de Rome. His entry the previous year, ''Cléopâtre'', had attracted disapproval from the judges because to highly conservative musicians it "betrayed dangerous tendencies", and for his 1830 offering he carefully modified his natural style to meet official approval.<ref name=grove/> During the same year he wrote the ''Symphonie fantastique'' and became engaged to be married.<ref name=bxvi>Bloom (2000), p. xvi</ref>

[[File:Marie-Moke-Pleyel.jpg|thumb|upright=0.7|alt=drawing of young white woman, with short dark hair, in plain early 19th century dress|[[Marie Pleyel|Marie ("Camille") Moke]], later Pleyel]]
By now recoiling from his obsession with Smithson, Berlioz fell in love with a nineteen-year-old pianist, [[Marie Pleyel|Marie ("Camille") Moke]]. His feelings were reciprocated, and the couple planned to be married.<ref>Barzun, p. 98</ref> In December Berlioz organised a concert at which the ''Symphonie fantastique'' was premiered. Protracted applause followed the performance, and the press reviews expressed both the shock and the pleasure the work had given.<ref>Barzun, p. 107</ref> Berlioz's biographer [[David Cairns (writer)|David Cairns]] calls the concert a landmark not only in the composer's career but in the evolution of the modern orchestra.<ref>Cairns (2000), p. 426</ref> [[Franz Liszt]] was among those attending the concert; this was the beginning of a long friendship. Liszt later transcribed the entire ''Symphonie fantastique'' for piano to enable more people to hear it.<ref>Kregor, pp. 43–46</ref>

Shortly after the concert Berlioz set off for Italy: under the terms of the Prix de Rome, winners studied for two years at the [[Villa Medici]], the [[French Academy in Rome]]. Within three weeks of his arrival he went absent without leave: he had learnt that Marie had broken off their engagement and was to marry an older and richer suitor, [[Camille Pleyel]], the heir to the [[Pleyel et Cie|Pleyel]] piano manufacturing company.<ref>Evans, p. 27</ref> Berlioz made an elaborate plan to kill them both (and her mother, known to him as "l'hippopotame"),<ref>Cairns (2000), p. 422</ref> and acquired poisons, pistols and a disguise for the purpose.<ref name=h115/> By the time he reached [[Nice]] on his journey to Paris he thought better of the scheme, abandoned the idea of revenge, and successfully sought permission to return to the Villa Medici.<ref name=e28/>{{refn|Berlioz made light of the episode in his ''Mémoires'', but it clearly left a deep emotional scar,<ref name=b554>Berlioz, p. 554: note by David Cairns</ref> although events showed that he may have had a lucky escape: within five years of marrying Marie, Camille Pleyel left her and publicly denounced her scandalous conduct and persistent infidelity.<ref name=h115>Holoman (1989), pp. 115–116</ref><ref name=b554/>|group= n}} He stayed for a few weeks in Nice and wrote his ''[[Overtures by Hector Berlioz#Le Roi Lear|King Lear]]'' overture. On the way back to Rome he began work on a piece for narrator, solo voices, chorus and orchestra, ''[[Lélio|Le Retour à la vie]]'' (The Return to Life, later renamed ''Lélio''), a sequel to the ''Symphonie fantastique''.<ref name=e28/>

[[File:Berlioz young.jpg|thumb|upright=0.7|left|alt=painting of young white man with abundant curly brown hair and side-whiskers, wearing bright red cravat|Berlioz when a student at the [[Villa Medici]], 1832, by [[Émile Signol]]]]
Berlioz took little pleasure in his time in Rome. His colleagues at the Villa Medici, under their benevolent principal [[Horace Vernet]], made him welcome,<ref>Barzun, p. 113</ref> and he enjoyed his meetings with [[Felix Mendelssohn]], who was visiting the city,{{refn|Berlioz's liking for Mendelssohn's music was not reciprocated: the latter made no secret of his opinion that Berlioz lacked talent.<ref>Barzun, p. 118</ref>|group= n}} but he found Rome distasteful: "the most stupid and prosaic city I know; it is no place for anyone with head or heart."<ref name=grove/> Nonetheless, Italy had an important influence on his development. He visited many parts of it during his residency in Rome. Macdonald comments that after his time there, Berlioz had "a new colour and glow in his music&nbsp;... sensuous and vivacious"&nbsp;– derived not from Italian painting, in which he was uninterested, or Italian music, which he despised, but from "the scenery and the sun, and from his acute sense of locale".<ref name=grove/> Macdonald identifies ''[[Harold en Italie|Harold in Italy]]'', ''[[Benvenuto Cellini (opera)|Benvenuto Cellini]]'' and ''[[Roméo et Juliette (Berlioz)|Roméo et Juliette]]'' as the most obvious expressions of his response to Italy, and adds that ''[[Les Troyens]]'' and ''[[Béatrice et Bénédict]]'' "reflect the warmth and stillness of the Mediterranean, as well as its vivacity and force".<ref name=grove/> Berlioz himself wrote that ''Harold in Italy'' drew on "the poetic memories formed from my wanderings in [[Abruzzo|Abruzzi]]".<ref name=b225>Berlioz, p. 225</ref>

Vernet agreed to Berlioz's request to be allowed to leave the Villa Medici before the end of his two-year term. Heeding Vernet's advice that it would be prudent to delay his return to Paris, where the Conservatoire authorities might be less indulgent about his premature ending of his studies, he made a leisurely journey back, detouring via La Côte-Saint-André to see his family. He left Rome in May 1832 and arrived in Paris in November.<ref>Barzun, p. 125; and Evans, p. 28</ref>