The bushy-haired, medical school drop-out, hopeless romantic Hector Berlioz is one of the wildest characters in the composers’ hall of fame.  After failing four times to win the coveted Prix de Rome, Berlioz decided to tone down his music and write a more conventional cantata.  It won him the prize in 1830, which included a funded period of study in Italy, but he destroyed the cantata soon thereafter.  

Berlioz is notorious for falling in and out of bouts of deep passion.  In 1827, he fell madly in love with an Shakespearean actress Harriet Smithson, and stalked her unsuccessfully for years.  He later settled for another woman, and became engaged to her before leaving for Italy.  But after receiving no letters from his fiancée, he decided to go back to Paris and investigate, jeopardizing his scholarship.  Along the way, he learned that she had abandoned him in favor of the wealthy piano manufacturer and mediocre composer Pleyel.  Berlioz was determined to hunt them down and murder them before committing suicide. Fortunately, he ran out of steam, and decided to let it be.   In 1833, he met the long lost Smithson, and this time they married, but with disastrous results.  

The reflections of Berlioz's Italian adventure and tumultuous love life was reflected in his first opera, Benvenuto Cellini, composed in 1836 and first performed in 1838. The story was based on the autobiography of the famous Italian Renaissance sculptor. Along with a triangular love story, the opera gives a romantic picture of the artist's creative spirit and his quest to create a crowning masterpiece. Though the opera failed because of a confusing libretto and an inadequate production, it is easy to see why Berlioz was attracted to the story. 

The music in the Roman Carnival Overture comes from this opera.  Composed in 1843, it was an immediate success. By then, Berlioz was a well known virtuoso conductor, and this is the piece that he performed most often on his international concert tours.  The overture saved some of the best music from being forgotten along with the rest of the opera. The slow introduction was taken from the main love duet, the faster section from the saltarello in the Act I carnival scene.  The Italian influence from Berlioz’s tenure in Rome can be felt in this work.