England seems to have a special affinity with Berlioz. Many leading conductors of Berlioz have been English, from Sir Thomas Beecham to a trio of present-day conductor-knights, Sir Colin Davis, Sir Roger Norrington, and Sir John Eliot Gardiner. So have many scholars and critics, with the result that Berlioz’s standing in England seems higher than in almost any other country. Performances of his works, and not just the best-known ones, have been frequent in England and complemented by an impressive range of publications and events.

Did this “special relationship” take shape during Berlioz’s lifetime, in the period of his five visits to England in the eighteen-forties and eighteen-fifties? What was special about England for Berlioz? Extensive accounts of Berlioz’s time in London have already been given, particularly by A. W. Ganz, in his Berlioz in London of 1950, and most recently by David Cairns in his magisterial biography of Berlioz. What I seek to do here is to review what we know, to fill some small gaps, and to offer some thoughts on what Berlioz’s time in England meant to him.

Berlioz in England

Berlioz spent a total of just over seventy-five weeks in London, as shown in table 10.1—longer than anywhere else except Paris and his childhood home at La Côte-Saint-André.

The First Visit

Berlioz’s first visit, in 1847–1848, was easily the longest, accounting for almost half the total time he spent in London. He arrived initially on his own, having managed through “not just one but a succession of coups d’état” to prevent his mistress Marie Récio from accompanying him. She joined him a month later on 6 December, but appears to have returned to Paris around Christmas time, before coming back to London on 24 April 1848. Berlioz’s relationship with Marie may have cooled following his infatuation with a young Russian chorister in St. Petersburg during the spring of 1847, but he seems to have missed her company when she was not with him. Berlioz was brought to London by the flamboyant impresario Louis-Antoine Jullien to conduct his English Grand Opera company at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.