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Introduction
Paris since the time of Berlioz
The nomenclature of Paris and Berlioz
Sources of information
Acknowledgement
Guided tours of Berlioz’s Paris
List of residential addresses
(with links to the
relevant photos and commentary)*
List of public buildings
(with links to the
relevant photos and commentary)
This page is also available in French
Copyright notice: The texts, photos, images and musical scores on all pages of this site are covered by UK Law and International Law. All rights of publication or reproduction of this material in any form, including Web page use, are reserved. Their use without our explicit permission is illegal.
Last update: 8 March 2008
A red asterisk (*) in front of an item indicates an addition since the previous update.
This page and its related photographs and texts are intended to provide a visual commentary on Berlioz’s career in Paris. Paris was the unavoidable centre of his activities through most of his life, from his arrival there as a young medical student in 1821 until his death in 1869. His feelings towards the capital city were notoriously ambivalent. For Berlioz Paris was the focal point of his intellectual and artistic world, to which he was constantly drawn back in the midst of his wide-ranging travels in Europe — to Germany, Austria, central Europe, Russia, England. But it was also a "ville barbare" which he castigated mercilessly in his writings and where he was denied the degree of recognition which he received so conspicuously in other parts of Europe.
Berlioz was born at La Côte Saint-André near Grenoble on 11 December 1803, and the first seventeen years of his life were spent there. We have already created a page on this website, in English and French versions, to illustrate his home town.
The present page was created by us after a number of visits to Paris made since 1998; all the photographs, engravings and text/entries on this and the related pages are our own. All rights of reproduction of these photos and of the information on this site are reserved.
The number of locations covered here represents all the major buildings and sites in Paris associated with Berlioz.
To speed up consultation and viewing of the numerous photographs included here we have kept them separate from this introductory page. Below you will find a listing of (a) all the residential addresses of Berlioz in Paris, set out in chronological sequence, and (b) all the public buildings associated in one way or another with the life and career of Berlioz in the capital city, also arranged in chronological order. The lists serve as a concise guide to all the locations of relevance to Berlioz in Paris and provide links to individual pages, each devoted to a particular building or location. On those pages you will find more detailed information on the relevant buildings as well as photographs to illustrate them.
The division between "Residences" and "Public Buildings" is of course somewhat arbitrary: some locations could fit equally in one category or the other. "Residences" is concerned principally with the domiciles of Berlioz in Paris and other places connected with his personal life. "Public Buildings" includes especially, though not exclusively, the venues where performances of Berlioz’s music and of other musical works or plays took place – concert halls, opera houses, theatres, and others.
Paris since the time of Berlioz
Like every major city Paris has been in a state of continuous development and expansion over a long period of time. This was as true in Berlioz’s own lifetime as it had been before and was to continue after him — new streets and buildings were constructed or rebuilt, and construction frequently involved demolition or modification of what preceded it. This was particularly the case in the reign of Napoleon III (1852-1870) when Baron Haussmann, préfet of the Seine for most of Napoleon’s reign, created many new Boulevards and transformed the appearance of the city to something close to what it is nowadays (for example, both the Boulevard Saint-Michel and the Boulevard Saint-Germain are his creations). Hence while some streets and buildings have remained substantially as they were in Berlioz’s time, others have changed or even disappeared altogether. Not infrequently street numbers have been altered, which makes some identifications difficult. It is thus not possible to give more than a partial idea of the Paris that Berlioz knew. In our listing of places of relevance we have sought wherever possible to indicate what has survived and what has not. Places that have survived, even if at times in a modified form, are identified in the two lists with an asterisk (*) and where possible are illustrated with photographs.
An engraving of the early XIXth century gives a general view of Paris around the time of Berlioz’s arrival.
The
nomenclature of Paris and Berlioz
Berliozians who visit Paris nowadays may well be struck by
the almost complete absence of reference to the composer in any of the streets
and places in Paris. Many of his
predecessors or contemporaries in the musical world of his time are commemorated
by streets. Thus there are streets called after Auber, Bellini, Berton, Boïeldieu,
Cherubini, Donizetti, Glück, Grétry, Gossec, Gounod, Halévy, Hérold, Méhul,
Mendelssohn, Meyerbeer,
Jacques Offenbach, Rossini, St-Saëns, Scribe,
Spontini, Ambroise Thomas, and others. But there is no public street called after Berlioz (the
only street that bears his name is a private one, in the XVIth arrondissement).
Even the small Square Berlioz, at the end of the rue de Calais and the rue de
Vintimille, is no more than a part of the larger Place Adolphe Max. It is only in the cemetery at Montmartre
that there is an Avenue Berlioz, along which the composer’s tomb is to be found.
Berlioz himself would probably not have been surprised that
over two centuries
after his birth the capital city of France, unlike his native La Côte Saint-André,
does not yet give him adequate recognition at the official level.
In locating the sites associated with Berlioz and attempting to reconstruct his Paris we have consulted a number of sources. Particular mention should be made of the following:
1. Berlioz’s published letters in his Correspondance générale, edited by Pierre Citron (now complete in 8 volumes, including a volume of supplements, Paris, Flammarion, 1972-2003); see also Selected Letters of Berlioz, edited by Hugh Macdonald, translated by Roger Nichols, London, Faber and Faber, 1995.
2. The Memoirs of Hector Berlioz, translated by David Cairns, paperback edition, published in 1970 by Panther Books Ltd (792 pages).
3. The two-volume biography of Berlioz by David Cairns, Berlioz: The Making of an Artist 180-1832 (648 pages) and Berlioz: Servitude and Greatness 1832-1869 (896 pages), published in 1999 by Penguin.
4. Catalogue of the Works of Hector Berlioz, by D. Kern Holoman, published by Bärenreiter in 1987 (as volume 25 of the New Berlioz Edition; 527 pages); among other information this gives the dates and location of performances of Berlioz’s works in his lifetime. A summary version of this catalogue is also available online.
5. Berlioz à Paris, published by Edition Aug. Zurfluh, S.A. and Association Nationale Hector Berlioz, Paris, 1992 (72 pages); an illustrated introduction to the subject, which we have used as a starting point, though the information provided contains some omissions and occasional inaccuracies.
6. Dictionnaire historique des rues de Paris, by Jacques Hillairet, published by Les Éditions de Minuit, 2 volumes, 10th edition, Paris 1997 (744 and 733 pages); a major work of reference, though details sometimes need to be verified.
We are grateful to Monsieur Ludart and to our friend Pierre-René Serna for additional information concerning some of Berlioz’s residences in Paris and other buildings relating to the composer; this information is incorporated in the relevant pages.
Guided
tours of Berlioz’s Paris
Berliozians visiting Paris might be interested to know that Monsieur Laurent Ludart specialises in organising various guided tours of cultural and artistic sites in Paris (in French only). Included in his programme is a two-hour tour of Berlioz’s Paris. For further details and available dates please see his website.
The evidence for Berlioz’s addresses is derived for the most part from his correspondence, though many letters do not carry an indication of address (for example Berlioz’s earliest Paris address in 1821-1822 [104 rue Saint-Jacques], is attested not from his letters but from the register of inscriptions for the doctorate of the École de Médecine). The Memoirs also provide some detail. References to Berlioz’s writings will be included as appropriate.
Through his long stay in Paris Berlioz changed his address frequently. But Berlioz’s domiciles in Paris are not as scattered as the multiplicity of addresses might suggest. They fall into broad groups following the main divisions in his life. In the early years (1822-1830, until his departure for Italy), he lived near the centre of Paris – first in the Quartier Latin on the rive gauche (rue Saint-Jacques, then rue de la Harpe), briefly in the Ile de la Cité (rue de Harlay), then near the centre on the rive droite (rue de Richelieu). On his return (1832) he initially resided in the same area on the rive droite. With his marriage to Harriet Smithson he then moved for a brief period to Montmartre (1834-6), but soon established himself (permanently from 1836) in the present IXth arrondissement, in the area near the Gare Saint-Lazare, where all his domiciles down to the time of his death are located. Several are in fact within close walking distance of each other (43 and 65 rue Blanche, 15 rue de la Rochefoucauld, 19 rue Boursault, 17 rue de Vintimille, 4 rue de Calais).
A black asterisk (*) before an address indicates that the place is still extant, though it may have undergone modifications since the time of Berlioz.
1820
1821-1822
104 rue Saint-Jacques (from November 1821 to late summer 1822) [no
longer extant]
1822-1825
*71 rue Saint-Jacques (from November 1822 to
some time in 1823?)
Hôtel Louis-le-Grand, rue Saint-Jacques (from 1823 to summer 1824?) [no longer extant]
79, rue Saint-Jacques (from autumn 1824 to spring-summer 1825) [no longer extant]
1825-1826
27 rue de Harlay (from spring-summer 1825 to August-early September 1826)
[no longer extant]
1826-1828
58 rue de la Harpe (from early September 1826 until ca.
April 1828)
1828-1830
*96 rue de Richelieu
(from at least April 1828 until 30 December 1830)
[For the whole of 1831 and much of 1832 Berlioz was away from Paris as winner of the Prix de Rome]
1832-1834
1 rue Neuve Saint-Marc (from 7 November 1832 till at least June 1834) [no longer extant]
1833
*British Embassy in Paris Marries Harriet Smithson on 3 October, with Liszt
as one of the witnesses. The couple spent their honeymoon in
a small country cottage in Vincennes near Paris.
1834
10 rue Saint-Denis, Montmartre (from April to early October 1834) [no longer
extant]
*See also At Berlioz’s Home, published in Le Petit Journal, 13 December 1910.
*34 rue de Londres (from October 1834 to May 1835) [probably extant only in part]
1835-1836
12 rue Saint-Denis, Montmartre (from May 1835 to November 1836) [no longer
extant]
1836-1837
35 rue de Londres (from September 1836 to October 1837) [Berlioz continued
to use his Montmartre address until November 1836] [no longer extant]
1837-1844
31 rue de Londres
(from October 1837 to some time in 1844) [no longer
extant]
1844-1848
From 1844 onwards Berlioz’s addresses in Paris become complicated, since he started
to live with Marie Recio in her flat (41 rue de Provence) while his legal
address remained the domicile where Harriet Smithson continued to live (43 then
65 rue Blanche). The two addresses are used by Berlioz in different letters,
depending on the person to whom the letter is addressed.
41 rue de Provence
(his effective address from at least October 1844
until
April 1848) [this was Marie Recio’s address, where Berlioz started to stay
some time earlier in 1844. Note: the present no. 41 rue de Provence is
unlikely to be on the same site as the building in Berlioz’s time]
*43 rue Blanche
(his legal address, where Harriet Smithson
stayed from at least November 1844 to some time in 1847)
*65 rue Blanche
(Harriet Smithson moved to this new address
some time in 1847 until she eventually moved to Montmartre some time in 1848,
where she died on 3rd March 1854)
[1846-1847]
[10 rue Neuve St Georges (this was in fact the address of the salle Sax;
Berlioz did not reside there but used it with his sister Nanci as a postal
address since he did not want her to know about his domestic circumstances)]
1848-1849
*15 rue de la Rochefoucauld
(from July 1848 to the summer of 1849; Marie
Recio and her mother had already moved there in late April 1848, and Berlioz
joined them on his return from London in July 1848)
1849-1856
*19 rue Boursault
[now part of the rue La Bruyère]
(from ca. August 1849 to April 1856)
1854
*Cimetière
Saint-Vincent A small cemetery in Montmartre. Harriet Smithson
was first buried here.
1856-1869
*17 rue de Vintimille
(from April to October 1856)
*4 rue de Calais (from October 1856 until his death on 8 March 1869)
1869
*Église de la
Sainte-Trinité
Berlioz died on 8 March and his
funeral took place here on 11 March.
*See also five contemporary obituaries on this site.
*Cimetière de Montmartre Berlioz is buried here.
See also The inauguration of Berlioz’s funeral monument, published in Le Monde Illustré, 19 March 1887.
1886
*Square Berlioz
A commemorative statue of Berlioz was
unveiled here in a ceremony held on 17 October 1886 [the original statue is no
longer extant].
See also Subscription in 1884 for a monument to Berlioz and four contemporary reports regarding the inauguration of the statue of Berlioz on this site.
2003
*The
Panthéon Berlioz’s remains were scheduled to be moved here on 21 June
2003, but
the project has now been cancelled altogether.
Date unknown
*Rue
Berlioz (a private street in the XVIth arrondissement)
List
of relevant public buildings
A black asterisk (*) before a building indicates that it is still extant, though it may have undergone modifications since the time of Berlioz.
1820
1821-22
*École de Médecine
[Faculty of Medicine] Berlioz studied medicine here for two
years.
Hospice de la Pitié Berlioz graphically describes in his Memoirs (Chapter 5) a dissection session here with one of his fellow medical students.
1821 -
Paris Opéra Le Peletier
[no longer extant] The Paris Opéra, like the Conservatoire,
played a major part in Berlioz’s career from his earliest days in the capital
city in November 1821, though ultimately an unhappy one.
1822 -
*Paris Conservatoire
The Conservatoire, its library, teachers, concert hall and orchestra, all played
a major part in every aspect of Berlioz’s career from 1822 onwards.
See also The Misadventures of the Salle du Conservatoire by Pierre-René Serna.
1824 -
*Théâtre de l’Odéon
Attends many concerts/operas
here including Weber’s Der Freischütz in 1825 (arranged by Castil-Blaze,
"disguised" as Robin des bois).
In September 1827 he attends Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet, in
which Harriet Smithson plays Ophelia and Juliet respectively.
1825
*Église
Saint-Roch Première of the Messe Solennelle
on 10 July.
1825-26
*Pont Neuf
Frequently eats his frugal lunch here under the
statue of Henry IV in student days.
1826-27
Théâtre des Nouveautés Sings in the chorus in the evenings to make a
living [no longer extant]
1827-
*Café Le Cardinal
at the corner of the rue de Richelieu and the Boulevard
des Italiens, frequented by Berlioz from an early date.
1827-1830, 1856-
*Institut de France
Berlioz writes his four Prix de Rome cantatas there in
1827-1830. After several attempts he is elected member of the Institut on 21
June 1856.
1827-
*Église Saint-Eustache
Second performance of the Messe
Solennelle in 1827 (22 November), three performances of the Requiem
in 1846 (20 August), 1850 (3 May) and 1852 (22 October), the première of Te Deum
on 30 April 1855.
1830
*Galerie Vivienne Berlioz leads a large crowd in the singing of the Marseillaise
at the time of the July revolution.
1837
*Saint-Louis des
Invalides, Le Dôme des Invalides The Grande Messe
des Morts (the Requiem) is premièred here on 5 December.
See also a review of the première of the Requiem, published in Le Charivari, 6 December 1837 (in French).
1840
*Colonne de Juillet
Berlioz ends his musical procession here, conducting the
Symphonie Funèbre et Triomphale on 28 July as part of a ceremony in
1840 in honour of those who lost their lives in the 1830 revolution.
1845
Cirque Olympique
An enclosed hippodrome off the Champs-Elysées. Berlioz
gives four large-scale concerts here between January and April 1845 [no longer
extant]
See also A concert in January 1845 at the Cirque Olympique.
1846
*Opéra-Comique, Salle
Favart and Salle Feydeau The première of La Damnation de Faust
takes place at the Salle Favart on 6 December [the two versions of the building that existed
in Berlioz’s time are no longer extant]. On 25 February 1829 Berlioz’s overture Waverley is performed at the Salle Feydeau.
1854
Salle Herz Première of L’Enfance du Christ on 10 December.
1855
Le Palais de l’Industrie Organises and conducts here two
‘colossal’ concerts on 15 and 16 November to mark the closing of the Exposition
Universelle [no longer extant]
1856 -
Palais des Tuileries Berlioz (with his second wife Marie) goes to the
Emperor’s monthly parties to which members of the Institute are also invited [no longer extant]
1823 - 1863
*Salle Ventadour
(Théâtre Italien) Attends many concerts
and operas here as well as elsewhere to write reviews and notices as a music
critic for various journals.
1863
*Théâtre-Lyrique
Impérial Acts 3-5 of Les Troyens (in a truncated form,
under the title Les Troyens à Carthage) were first performed here (from 4
November until 20 December).
See also a review of the première of Les Troyens, published n Le Monde Illustré 14 November 1863 (in French).
1883
*Jardin du Luxembourg Zacharie Astruc, the French sculptor and art critic, an admirer of Berlioz, included a mask of Berlioz in his Le Marchand de masques, which is located here.
Related pages on this site:
Berlioz Mémoires (in the original French)
The Hector Berlioz Website was created by Monir Tayeb and Michel Austin on 18
July 1997;
Berlioz in Paris pages created on 19 October 2000 (English version) and 20 October
2000 (French version). Both versions
extensively reorganised on 24 December 2000; substantial additions made since.
© 2000-2008 (unless otherwise stated) Michel Austin and Monir Tayeb for all the photos, engravings and information on Berlioz in Paris pages.
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