Ophelia's Fan

On the subject of reading and books...I finished "Blue Like Jazz" by Donald Miller on the bus to work this morning. Amazing book! I highly recommend it. I bought my copy for $1.99 at a thrift store. I've been reading a lot of non-fiction books lately. Books about forgiveness, marriage, parenthood, etc. I realized today as I finished up the Donald Miller book that I need to get lost in a good story. I think I'm going to read a book that I've owned for a while but never got around to reading. It's called "Ophelia's Fan" by Christine Balint. It's the story of Harriet Smithson, an Irish actress who was in a Shakespearean acting troop. She really existed. Eventually, a fiery composer named Hector Berlioz (who also really existed) caught one of her plays and fell in love. He tried to woo her but she declined his love. In utter misery, Berlioz wrote a program symphony called "Symphonie Fantastique". In the program, Berlioz tells about how he met and fell in love with Berlioz in the first movements. In the last movements, he goes on to explain that he was in utter dispair because she would not return his love and decided to take opium to kill away the pain. In his opium induced stupor, he dreams that he killed his love out of jealousy and is being sent to the guillotine (the 4th movement). In the last movement, he dreams that he in now in the afterlife and that demons, and even his beloved, are dancing around him and mocking him. It's a fantastic symphony (no pun intended) and I highly recommend listening to it in its entirety. However, make sure you download and read the program as you listen to each movement. It will make all the difference if you understand what you are listening to. Anyway...back to the book. The book takes these real life events and brings them to life in a historical fiction that includes some true elements. I think I'll start reading it this weekend. I'll let you know what I think when I'm done...or you can read my review on Shelfari. For the weekend, I'll leave you with the 4th movement of the "Symphonie Fantastique" called March to the Guillotine. Here's the program explanation for that movement.

Convinced that his love is spurned, the artist poisons himself with opium. The dose of narcotic, while too weak to cause his death, plunges him into a heavy sleep accompanied by the strangest of visions. He dreams that he has killed his beloved, that he is condemned, led to the scaffold and is witnessing his own execution. The procession advances to the sound of a march that is sometimes sombre and wild, and sometimes brilliant and solemn, in which a dull sound of heavy footsteps follows without transition the loudest outbursts. At the end of the march, the first four bars of the idée fixe reappear like a final thought of love interrupted by the fatal blow.

Listen carefully and you'll hear the footsteps as the crowd walks to the scaffold. You'll hear the outbursts of the crowd. You can even hear the culprit stumble as he is pushed along. At the end, you'll hear the Idee Fixe (which is the theme of his beloved, Harriet Smithson) which is interrupted by the fatal blow of the guillotine. His last thought was of his beloved. Then in the music, you can even hear his head bounce on the ground after it is chopped off. It's an amazing piece and one of my favorite movements from the symphony. If you close your eyes, you can see and hear everything that he describes in the program. Oh...and you should know...In real life, Hector invited Smithson, through a mutual friend, to attend a concert of his symphony. She read the program and realized that it was about her. She swooned and agreed to meet Hector afterward. Eventually, they were married. Ah...the power of music.