Berlioz (1803-1869) completed the Symphonie Fantastique in 1830, perhaps partly under the influence of opium, while he was passionately in love with the Irish actress, Harriet Smithson, whom he married in 1833. He described the piece’s program as opium-induced reveries of a young musician who idolizes a woman who doesn’t return his love. In despair, he attempts suicide by opium poisoning, and dreams of witnessing his own execution after having killed his beloved. The “beloved” is represented by a leitmotif present in all five symphonic mvmts. The mvmts are addressed to the artist (themes presented simply), to the dance (mysterious intro, then waltz theme), to nature (English horn and oboe are shepherds conversing), to love (dreams of killing the beloved and marching to the scaffold), and to death (witches dance combined with Dies irae). The last two mvmts are dark and violent, marked by strikingly original orchestration. Le francs-juges Op. 3 is the title of an unfinished opera from 1826. Danger is never far away in the Overture, with its foreboding intro, interrupted by a majestic brass theme, then a passionate interlude, a wind chorale, fury and mystery, and a final affirmation fugue and short coda.