Famous people
| Hector Berlioz 1803-1869 , address
in Rome: Villa Medici on Monte Pincio |
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Today Berlioz is remembered above all as the foremost Romantic composer who gave us a priceless record of musical life in the mid 19th century. Awarded the Prix de Rome, then the most prominent prize in composition, he is well known for his „Grande Messe des Morts" (Requiem), his symphonies such as „Roméo and Juliette" and the Symphonie Fantastique (1829-30), subtitled "An episode from the life of the artist", as well as his operas including „Benvenuto Cellini", the monumental „Les Troyens" and „Béatrice et Bénédict." Yet, Berlioz was also a music critic of note and his book, „Treatise on Modern Instrumentation and Orchestration", greatly influenced composers who came after him. |
| John Keats (1795-1821) , address
in Rome: 110 via Margutta |
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"Rome was not built in a day, and all the good I expect from my employment this summer is the fruit of experience which I hope to gather in my next poem."
Often thought of as the quintessential Romantic poet, London born Keats published his first book of verse, "Poems", in 1817, and he followed it with several more volumes including "Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes and Other Poems" (1820). He issued from his pen such remarkably fine poems as the lengthy "Endymion" (1816) and the sonnet "To Solitude" (1816). His three great odes, "Ode on a Grecian Urn", "Ode on Melancholy" and "Ode to a Nightingale", all appeared in 1819, and the fragment "Hyperion", written in two versions, was much admired by his coevals. In addition to being a poet, Keats wrote a substantial amount of letters that were printed in 1848 and 1878. The first of these famous letters, dated November 22, 1817, was addressed to Benjamin Bailey.
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