Notes for a reading of Cléopâtre (1829) by Hector Berlioz

Authors

  • Cesare Fertonani University of Milan

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.13130/2035-4797/1264

Keywords:

hector berlioz, cleopatra, prix de rome

Abstract

Hector Berlioz composed Cléopâtre to compete for 1829 Prix de Rome. He was so sure to win the prize that – setting a short Vieillard’s text to music having in mind Shakespeare’s Juliet monologue about sepulture – he allowed himself to indulge in formal experimentations perfectly coherent with his research about an ideal theater and the theme of memory, both developed in his later years. This is the reason why Cléopâtre displeased the jury but remains young Berlioz’s best achievement.

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Author Biography

Cesare Fertonani, University of Milan

Cesare Fertonani is professor at the Università degli Studi di Milano, teaching History of Modern and Contemporary Music and Methodology of Musical Criticism. He addressed his research interests above all to the music – mostly italian ¬– of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century and dealing with the matters of semantics, representational and narrative content in instrumental music.

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Published

2011-07-27

Issue

No. 7 (2010)

Section

SCENES OF ANCIENT ROME. Evolution of a Project. Edited by R. De Berti, E. Gagetti, F. Slavazzi. First Part