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Smithson, Harriet Constance, 1800-1854. Autograph letter signed H. Berlioz Smithson, dated : [Paris] Dec. 18 1834, to an unidentified recipient, 1834 Dec. 18.

Title: Autograph letter signed H. Berlioz Smithson, dated : [Paris] Dec. 18 1834, to an unidentified recipient, 1834 Dec. 18.

Saying that she has performed continually at the Théâtre Nautique since he saw her there, has incurred many expenses, but that the director has failed to keep his promise to pay her and the other artists, asking if the recipient "would kindly condescend to exert yourself by forming one or two Amateur performances for my Benefit," adding that it would allow her to take a professional tour through Germany, where her husband [Hector Berlioz] "is obliged to go shortly as a pensionnaire of the Conservatoire de Musique."

ArchivalResource: 1 item (2 p.) ; (8vo)

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/270669898 View

Berlioz, Hector, 1803-1869. Autograph letters signed (2), dated : Paris, to Edouard Rocher, 1829 June 25 and 1839 Jan. 9.

Title: Autograph letters signed (2), dated : Paris, to Edouard Rocher, 1829 June 25 and 1839 Jan. 9.

Writing [in 1829] of his unhappiness following Harriet Smithson's departure--"elle est partie! Londres! ... immense succès! ... moi, je suis seul ... errant la nuit dans les rues, avec une douleur poignante qui m'obsède, comme un fer rouge sur la poitrine"--, and reporting [in 1839] on Benvenuto Cellini--"Pour les choeurs, ils sont d'une mollesse et d'une apathie à désespérer un saint. J'ai renoncé à animer cette troupe de cadavres. Enfin ce malheureux Benvenuto ... est réellement malvenuto"--, mentioning Bourget, Paganini, Duprez, Dupont, Charles Bert, etc.

ArchivalResource: 2 items (6 p.) ; (8vo)

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/270672588 View

Berlioz, Hector, 1803-1869. Autograph letters signed (5), dated : Paris, 28 July 1827, 5 April 1848 and 26 November [1848], and 29 December 1849, and London, 4 March 1849, to his sister Nanci Berlioz [later Pal], 1827 July 28 and 1849 Mar. 4.

Title: Autograph letters signed (5), dated : Paris, 28 July 1827, 5 April 1848 and 26 November [1848], and 29 December 1849, and London, 4 March 1849, to his sister Nanci Berlioz [later Pal], 1827 July 28 and 1849 Mar. 4.

Of a personal and familial nature, discussing work on a fugue for the prix de Rome, mentioning his [Damnation de] Faust, Berton, Cherubini, Lesueur, [Sir James] Brooke, Cavaignac, Henriette [i.e. Harriet Smithson], his son, Louis, Charles Blanc, Camille [Pal], Mme Sand's [François] Le Champi, Lamartine, etc.

ArchivalResource: 5 items (16 p., with one integral address leaf) ; various sizes.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/270672555 View

Smithson, Harriet Constance, 1800-1854. Printed ticket signed, dated : [London June 11 1829], 1829 June 11.

Title: Printed ticket signed, dated : [London June 11 1829], 1829 June 11.

For a box at Smithson's Benefit at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, on 11 June 1829.

ArchivalResource: 1 item (1 p.) ; (32mo)

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/270669895 View

Berlioz, Hector, 1803-1869. Autograph letter, dated : Paris, to [Humbert Ferrand], 1833 Oct. 25.

Title: Autograph letter, dated : Paris, to [Humbert Ferrand], 1833 Oct. 25.

Writing about Henriette (i.e. Harriet Smithson, whom he had married on 3 October), saying that she is a delicious being, she is Ophelia herself--not Juliet, for she has not her passionate ardor, but tender, sweet, and timid--, adding that to comfort her he sings the idée fixe from the Symphonie fantastique (Berlioz writes out an eight-bar quotation from the theme), saying that Liszt has just arranged the Fantastique for piano solo and that it will be engraved soon, that he is still working on the Francs-juges, and ending "Adieu, farewell, dearest Horatio, remember me, I'll not forget thee."

ArchivalResource: 1 item (4 p.) ; (12mo)

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/270672460 View

Berlioz, Hector, 1803-1869. Autograph letter signed, dated : Paris, to [Humbert Ferrand], 1830 May 13.

Title: Autograph letter signed, dated : Paris, to [Humbert Ferrand], 1830 May 13.

Expressing gratitude for Ferrand's anxiety on Berlioz's behalf--"it is indeed a rare thing to find a complete man, who has a soul, a heart, and imagination," saying that he did not write the program of the Symphonie fantastique out of vengeance--"I pity and despise her [Harriet Smithson]. She is but an ordinary type of woman, endowed with an instinctive power of expressing those pangs of the human soul which she has never felt, and incapable of entertaining a grand and noble sentiment such as the one with which I have honored her," saying that plans are well advanced for the première of the Fantastique on the 30th, that if Harriet reads the program "she cannot help recognizing herself," mentioning Les francs-juges, Haitzinger, Schroeder-Devrient, [Weber's] Freischütz, [Beethoven's] Fidelio, Onslow, Eugénie Lesueur, Nourrit, Hiller, etc.

ArchivalResource: 1 item (4 p.) ; (8vo)

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/270672454 View

Berlioz, Hector, 1803-1869. Autograph letters signed (14), dated : Paris [and n.p.], 1850-1865, to his brother-in-law Camille Pal, 1850-1865.

Title: Autograph letters signed (14), dated : Paris [and n.p.], 1850-1865, to his brother-in-law Camille Pal, 1850-1865.

Of a social, familial, financial, and musical nature, metioning his Te Deum, Benvenuto [Cellini] in Weimar, Requiem, Roméo et Juliette, [Damnation de] Faust, Les grotesques de la musique, Les troyens, Béatrice et Bénédict, L'enfance du Christ, [Gluck's] Alceste, his son, Louis, Admiral Cécile, Henriette [i.e. Harriet Smithson], his sister Adèle, Charles Dupin, [T. Frederick] Beale, the Pion family, grand operas by Gounot [i.e. Gounod] and Gewaert [i.e. Gevaert], Benazet, Mme Charton-Demeur, Carvalho, Viardot, Stoltz, Titjens [i.e. Therese Tietjens], [Caroline Carvalho], etc.

ArchivalResource: 14 items (40 p.) ; various sizes.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/270672546 View

Berlioz, Hector, 1803-1869. Autograph letter signed H.C. Smithson, dated : [Paris], to Mlle [Mars], 1833 Apr. 10.

Title: Autograph letter signed H.C. Smithson, dated : [Paris], to Mlle [Mars], 1833 Apr. 10.

Saying that she has just heard that the English artists intend to exclude some of their compatriots from the benefit [for the actors in Smithson's English troupe]--M. Chippendale and Mme Pearce, among others--, and asking her to do all in her power to prevent such an injustice, and further asking that Mars not perform unless all the English artists (Smithson excepted) take part.

ArchivalResource: 1 item (2 p.) ; (12mo)

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/270672535 View

Berlioz, Hector, 1803-1869. Autograph letter signed, dated : Paris, to M. [Louis] Berlioz, his father, in La Côte-St.-André, 1840 Sept. 22.

Title: Autograph letter signed, dated : Paris, to M. [Louis] Berlioz, his father, in La Côte-St.-André, 1840 Sept. 22.

Partly of a familial and social nature, mentioning Nanci, Adèle, Henriette [i.e. Harriet Smithson], and [their son,] Louis, saying Henriette is deeply touched by Berlioz's father's desire to become acquainted with her, saying there is nothing new concerning the Opéra: Frédéric Soulié works and Berlioz listens, in preparation for Berlioz's November concerts, etc.

ArchivalResource: 1 item (3 p., with integral address leaf) ; (12mo)

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/270672401 View

Berlioz, Hector, 1803-1869. Autograph letters signed (2), dated : [Paris], to [Humbert Ferrand] 1834 May 17 and 1858 Nov. 19.

Title: Autograph letters signed (2), dated : [Paris], to [Humbert Ferrand] 1834 May 17 and 1858 Nov. 19.

Complaining [in 1834] that he must scribble for newspapers that pay him as little as they can, mentioning a life of Gluck, la Chasse de Lutzow [i.e. Weber's Leyer und Schwert]--Berlioz writes out 3/4 of a page of the music sung by "those animals of chorus singers"--, commenting on the prosody of Ferrand's lines, saying that Harriet [Berlioz's wife] is frequently ill [their son, Louis, was born on 14 August], that he has chosen Benvenuto Cellini as the subject for a new two-act comic opera, that he has finished the first three parts of his new symphony [Harold en Italie], mentioning Bertin, Shakespeare's Hamlet, [Liszt's transcription of the] Symphonie [fantastique]; discussing [in 1858] the serialization of his Mémoires in le Monde illustré--they were edited between 1848 and 1850 and he is only publishing fragments of them now--, discussing his efforts to have Les Troyens produced at the Opéra, complaining that the emperor is not fond enough of music to intercede on Berlioz's behalf so that, like Mozart, Haydn, Mendelssohn, Weber, and Beethoven before him, all of whom wished to write for the Opéra, Berlioz is ostracized from it, saying that he is sending Ferrand the full score of L'enfance du Christ, mentioning Rouget de Lisle and the Marseillaise, etc.

ArchivalResource: 2 items (9 p.) ; (8vo)

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/270672462 View