1.
Leeds
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Leeds /liːdz/ is a city in West Yorkshire, England. Historically in Yorkshires West Riding, the history of Leeds can be traced to the 5th century when the name referred to an area of the Kingdom of Elmet. The name has applied to many administrative entities over the centuries. It changed from being the appellation of a small borough in the 13th century, through several incarnations. In the 17th and 18th centuries Leeds became a centre for the production. During the Industrial Revolution, Leeds developed into a mill town, wool was the dominant industry but flax, engineering, iron foundries, printing. From being a market town in the valley of the River Aire in the 16th century Leeds expanded and absorbed the surrounding villages to become a populous urban centre by the mid-20th century. The city has the third largest jobs total by local authority area with 480,000 in employment and self-employment at the beginning of 2015. Leeds is also ranked as a world city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. Leeds is served by four universities, and has the fourth largest student population in the country and has the fourth largest urban economy. After London, Leeds is the largest legal and financial centre in the UK, with over 30 national and international banks located in the city. Leeds is also the UKs third largest manufacturing centre with around 1,800 firms and 39,000 employees, the largest sub-sectors are engineering, printing and publishing, food and drink, chemicals and medical technology. Outside of London, Leeds has the third busiest railway station, Public transport, rail and road communications networks in the region are focused on Leeds and there are a number of twinning arrangements with towns and cities in other countries. The name Leeds derives from the old Brythonic word Ladenses meaning people of the fast-flowing river and this name originally referred to the forested area covering most of the Brythonic kingdom of Elmet, which existed during the 5th century into the early 7th century. An inhabitant of Leeds is locally known as a Loiner, a word of uncertain origin, the term Leodensian is also used, from the citys Latin name. Leeds developed as a town in the Middle Ages as part of the local agricultural economy. Before the Industrial Revolution it became a centre for the manufacture of woollen cloth. Leeds handled one sixth of Englands export trade in 1770, growth, initially in textiles, was accelerated by the building of the Aire and Calder Navigation in 1699 and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal in 1816
2.
Salford Quays
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Salford Quays is an area of Salford, Greater Manchester, England, near the end of the Manchester Ship Canal. Previously the site of Manchester Docks, it one of the first and largest urban regeneration projects in the United Kingdom following the closure of the dockyards in 1982. Built by the Manchester Ship Canal Company, Salford Docks was the larger of two sections made up Manchester Docks, the other being Pomona Docks to the east. They were opened in 1894 by Queen Victoria and spanned 120 acres of water and 1,000 acres of land and they closed in 1982, resulting in the loss of 3000 jobs. In 1983 Salford City Council acquired parts of the docks covering 220 acres from the Manchester Ship Canal Company with the aid of a land grant. The area was rebranded as Salford Quays and redevelopment by Urban Waterside began in 1985 under the Salford Quays Development Plan, within two years the quality was sufficient to introduce 12,000 coarse fish, which have thrived in the environment. Between 1986 and 1990 the infrastructure of the docks was modified to create a waterway network. Roads and bridges were built and a promenade along the waterfront constructed and landscaped, moorings and watersports facilities were provided and a railway swing bridge moved to cross Dock 9. A hotel, cinema, housing, offices were built on Piers 5 and 6 followed by developments on Pier 7. Public funding and private investment totalled around £280 million by the early 1990s and it had secured £64 million in funding by 22 February 1996. The Lowry stands at the end of Pier 8, largely surrounded by the waters of the Manchester Ship Canal. Designed by James Stirling and Michael Wilford, it opened on 28 April 2000 and houses the 1,730 seat Lyric theatre, there are cafes, bars and a restaurant at the south-western end of the building. The centre is associated with L. S. Lowry, the Imperial War Museum North, on Trafford Wharf Road in Trafford Park, overlooks the Manchester Ship Canal on the opposite bank to the Lowry and MediaCityUK. The area was bombed during the Manchester Blitz in December 1940. The museum, designed by architect Daniel Libeskind, opened in July 2002 and its structure was designed to be a metaphor for a world shattered by war with sloping walls and ceilings. Three areas, the Air, Earth and Water Shards house exhibition and gallery space, public areas, at the moment, the exhibition is dedicated to Medicine Through Time. The museum also currently has an artifact from the New York 9/11 Twin Tower disaster. MediaCityUK is a 200-acre mixed-use property development on Pier 9 of the Quays with a focus on creative industries and it was developed by the Peel Group
3.
East Riding of Yorkshire
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The East Riding of Yorkshire, or simply East Yorkshire, is a ceremonial county of England. It is located in the region of Yorkshire and the Humber, the modern East Riding of Yorkshire, was formed in 1996 from the northern part of the non-metropolitan county of Humberside. The East Riding of Yorkshire may also refer to the riding of Yorkshire. The historic riding covered an area than the modern county, it included some areas now in North Yorkshire, but did not include the area of Goole. At the 2011 Census the Unitary Authority population was 334,179, the landscape consists of a crescent of low chalk hills, the Yorkshire Wolds, surrounded by the low-lying fertile plains of Holderness and the Vale of York. The Humber Estuary and North Sea mark its southern and eastern limits, archaeological investigations have revealed artefacts and structures from all historical periods since the last ice age. There are few settlements and no industrial centres. The area is administered from the ancient market and ecclesiastical town of Beverley, Christianity is the religion with the largest following in the area and there is a higher than average percentage of retired people in residence. The economy is based on agriculture and this, along with tourism, has contributed to the rural. These aspects are also reflected in the places of interest to visitors and major landmarks, which include buildings, nature reserves. The open and maritime aspects and lack of urban developments have also led to the county being allocated relatively high targets for the generation of energy from renewable sources. Bishop Burton is the site of a college, and Hull provides the regions only university. On the southern border, close to Hull, the Humber Bridge spans the Humber Estuary to enable the A15 to link Hessle with Barton-upon-Humber in North Lincolnshire. When the last glacial period ended, the hunter gatherers of the Palaeolithic period followed the herds across the land between continental Europe and Britain. Until about 6,000 BC, Mesolithic people appear to have exploited their environment as they found it, as communities came to rely on a smaller territorial range and as population levels increased, attempts began to be made to modify or control the natural world. In the Great Wold Valley, pollen samples of Mesolithic date indicate that the forest cover in the area was being disturbed and altered by man, the Yorkshire Wolds became a major focus for human settlement during the Neolithic period as they had a wide range of natural resources. The oldest monuments found on the Wolds are the Neolithic long barrows, two earthen long barrows in the region are found at Fordon, on Willerby Wold, and at Kilham, both of which have radiocarbon dates of around 3700 BC. From around 2000 to 800 BC, the people of the Bronze Age built the 1,400 Bronze Age round barrows that are known to exist on the Yorkshire Wolds and these are found both in isolation and grouped together to form cemeteries
4.
English National Opera
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English National Opera is an opera company based in London, resident at the London Coliseum in St. Martins Lane. It is one of the two opera companies in London, along with The Royal Opera, Covent Garden. ENOs productions are sung in English, Baylis subsequently built up both the opera and the theatre companies, and later added a ballet company, these evolved into ENO, the Royal National Theatre and The Royal Ballet, respectively. Baylis acquired and rebuilt the Sadlers Wells theatre in north London, the opera company grew there into a permanent ensemble in the 1930s. During the Second World War, the theatre was closed and the company toured British towns, after the war, the company returned to its home, but it continued to expand and improve. By the 1960s, a theatre was needed. In 1968, the moved to the London Coliseum and adopted its present name in 1974. Among the conductors associated with the company have been Colin Davis, Reginald Goodall, Charles Mackerras, Mark Elder, the current music director of ENO is Martyn Brabbins. Noted directors who have staged productions at ENO have included David Pountney, Jonathan Miller, Nicholas Hytner, Phyllida Lloyd, ENOs current artistic director is Daniel Kramer. In addition to the operatic repertoire, the company has presented a wide range of works, from early operas by Monteverdi to new commissions, operetta. In 1889, Emma Cons, a Victorian philanthropist who ran the Old Vic theatre in a area of London. Although the theatre licensing laws of the day prevented full costumed performances, Cons presented condensed versions of well-known operas, among the performers were noted singers such as Charles Santley. These operatic evenings quickly became more popular than the dramas that Cons had been staging separately, in 1898, she recruited her niece Lilian Baylis to help run the theatre. At the same time she appointed Charles Corri as the Old Vics musical director, Baylis and Corri, despite many disagreements, shared a passionate belief in popularising opera, hitherto generally the preserve of the rich and fashionable. They worked on a budget, with an amateur chorus. By the early years of the 20th century, the Old Vic was able to present semi-staged versions of Wagner operas, Emma Cons died in 1912, leaving her estate, including the Old Vic, to Baylis, who dreamed of transforming the theatre into a peoples opera house. In the same year, Baylis obtained a licence to allow the Old Vic to stage performances of operas. In the 1914–1915 season, Baylis staged 16 operas and 16 plays, the opera, however, remained her first priority
5.
Samson and Delilah (opera)
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Samson and Delilah, Op.47, is a grand opera in three acts and four scenes by Camille Saint-Saëns to a French libretto by Ferdinand Lemaire. It was first performed in Weimar at the Grossherzogliches Theater on 2 December 1877 in a German translation, the opera is based on the Biblical tale of Samson and Delilah found in Chapter 16 of the Book of Judges in the Old Testament. It is the opera by Saint-Saëns that is regularly performed. The second act love scene in Delilahs tent is one of the set pieces that define French opera, the composer began work on the theme in 1867, just two years after completing his first opera, Le timbre dargent. Saint-Saëns later wrote, A young relative of mine had married a young man who wrote verse on the side. I realized that he was gifted and had in fact real talent, I asked him to work with me on an oratorio on a biblical subject. He said, no, lets make it an opera, and he began to dig through the Bible while I outlined the plan of the work, even sketching scenes, and leaving him only the versification to do. For some reason I began the music with Act 2, and I played it at home to an audience who could make nothing of it at all. From the very beginning, the work was conceived as a duet between Samson and Dalila set off against the approaching tempest. Composer Augusta Holmès, painter Henri Regnault, and Romain Bussine rendered their roles from part books, in spite of many precedents, the French public reacted negatively to Saint-Saënss intention of putting a Biblical subject on the stage. The alarm on the part of the public caused him to working further on the opera for the next two years. Encouraged, Saint-Saëns began composing act 1 in late 1872 and worked on it sporadically for the few years. He wrote a large amount of act 1 and completed it during a trip to Algiers in 1874, upon returning to France in 1875, Saint-Saëns presented act 1 in Paris at the Théâtre du Châtelet in a similar format as the 1870 performance of act 2. The work was received by music critics and failed to gain the publics interest. Viardot was an admirer of the work and she hoped that this private performance would encourage Halanzier. Although Saint-Saëns completed the score in 1876, no houses in France displayed any desire to stage Samson et Dalila. Liszts sustained support however led to the work being mounted in Weimar in 1877, although Liszt was no longer the musical director in Weimar, he still exerted a powerful influence at the Weimar court. The libretto was translated into German for the production and the operas first performance was given on 2 December 1877 at the Grossherzogliches Theatre
6.
Der Ring des Nibelungen
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Der Ring des Nibelungen, WWV86, is a cycle of four German-language epic music dramas composed by Richard Wagner. The works are based loosely on characters from the Norse sagas, the composer termed the cycle a Bühnenfestspiel, structured in three days preceded by a Vorabend. It is often referred to as the Ring Cycle, Wagners Ring, Wagner wrote the libretto and music over the course of about twenty-six years, from 1848 to 1874. The first performance as an opened the first Bayreuth Festival in 1876, beginning with Das Rheingold on 13 August. Wagners title is most literally rendered in English as The Ring of the Nibelung, the Nibelung of the title is the dwarf Alberich, and the ring in question is the one he fashions from the Rhine Gold. The title therefore denotes Alberichs Ring, Nibelungen is occasionally mistaken as a plural, but the Ring of the Nibelungs is incorrect. The cycle is a work of extraordinary scale, the first and shortest work, Das Rheingold, typically lasts two and a half hours, while the final and longest, Götterdämmerung, takes up to five hours, excluding intervals. The cycle is modelled after ancient Greek dramas that were presented as three tragedies and one satyr play, the Ring proper begins with Die Walküre and ends with Götterdämmerung, with Rheingold as a prelude. Wagner called Das Rheingold a Vorabend or Preliminary Evening, and Die Walküre, Siegfried and Götterdämmerung were subtitled First Day, Second Day and Third Day, respectively, the scale and scope of the story is epic. It follows the struggles of gods, heroes, and several mythical creatures over the magic ring that grants domination over the entire world. The drama and intrigue continue through three generations of protagonists, until the final cataclysm at the end of Götterdämmerung, the music of the cycle is thick and richly textured, and grows in complexity as the cycle proceeds. Wagner wrote for an orchestra of gargantuan proportions, including a greatly enlarged brass section with new instruments such as the Wagner tuba, bass trumpet and contrabass trombone. Remarkably, he uses a chorus only relatively briefly, in acts 2 and 3 of Götterdämmerung and he eventually had a purpose-built theatre constructed, the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, in which to perform this work. The theatre has a stage that blends the huge orchestra with the singers voices. The result was that the singers did not have to strain themselves vocally during the long performances. The plot revolves around a ring that grants the power to rule the world. Wotans schemes to regain the ring, spanning generations, drive much of the action in the story, Hagen is drowned as he attempts to recover the ring. In the process, the gods and Valhalla are destroyed, details of the storylines can be found in the articles on each music drama
7.
Der Rosenkavalier
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Der Rosenkavalier, Op.59, is a comic opera in three acts by Richard Strauss to an original German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. It is loosely adapted from the novel Les amours du chevalier de Faublas by Louvet de Couvrai and it was first performed at the Königliches Opernhaus in Dresden on 26 January 1911 under the direction of Max Reinhardt, Ernst von Schuch conducting. Until the premiere the working title was Ochs von Lerchenau, at the Marschallins suggestion Ochs gets Octavian to act as his Rosenkavalier and present the ceremonial silver rose to Sophie. But when Octavian meets Sophie they fall in love at first sight, by a comic intrigue they get rid of Ochs with the help of the Marschallin, who then yields Octavian to the younger woman. Although a comic opera, Der Rosenkavalier also operates at a deeper level, conscious of the difference in age between herself and Octavian, the Marschallin muses in bittersweet fashion over the passing of time, growing old and mens inconstancy. There are many recordings of the opera and it is regularly performed, the event was a pinnacle in the career of soprano Margarethe Siems who portrayed the Marschallin. Minnie Nast played Sophie, and Eva von der Osten was Octavian, the reaction to the 1911 premiere was nothing short of triumphant. The opera was a success with the public and was a great financial boon for the house, it is reported that at the time of the première. Despite this, the opera one of the composers most popular works during his lifetime. Der Rosenkavalier quickly became an important part of the opera repertoire. Less than two months after its premiere, the work was performed for the first time in Italy at La Scala on 1 March 1911 using an Italian translation. The cast, led by conductor Tullio Serafin, included Lucrezia Bori in the role of Octavian, Ines Maria Ferraris as Sophie. The operas Austrian premiere was given by the Vienna State Opera on the following 8 April under the baton of Schuch with Marie Gutheil-Schoder as Octavian, and Richard Mayr as Baron Ochs. The work reached the Teatro Costanzi in Rome seven months later on 14 November with Egisto Tango conducting Hariclea Darclée as the Marschallin, the United Kingdom premiere of Der Rosenkavalier occurred at the Royal Opera House in London on 29 January 1913. Thomas Beecham conducted the performance and the cast included Margarethe Siems as the Marschallin, the United States premiere took place at the Metropolitan Opera on the following 9 December in a production conducted by Alfred Hertz. The cast included Frieda Hempel as the Marschallin, Margarethe Arndt-Ober as Octavian, and Anna Case as Sophie. A number of Italian theatres produced the work for the first time in the 1920s, including the Teatro Lirico Giuseppe Verdi, Teatro Regio di Torino, Teatro di San Carlo, and the Teatro Carlo Felice. Der Rosenkavalier reached Monaco on 21 March 1926 when it was performed by the Opéra de Monte-Carlo at the Salle Garnier in a French translation, the performance starred Gabrielle Ritter-Ciampi as the Marschallin and Vanni Marcoux as Faninal
8.
Francis Poulenc
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Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc was a French composer and pianist. His compositions include mélodies, solo works, chamber music, choral pieces, operas, ballets. Poulencs wealthy family intended him for a career in the Rhone Poulenc family company. Largely self-educated musically, he studied with the pianist Ricardo Viñes, Poulenc soon came under the influence of Erik Satie, under whose tutelage he became one of a group of young composers known collectively as Les Six. In his early works Poulenc became known for his high spirits, during the 1930s a much more serious side to his nature emerged, particularly in the religious music he composed from 1936 onwards, which he alternated with his more light-hearted works. In addition to composing, Poulenc was an accomplished pianist and he was particularly celebrated for his performing partnerships with the baritone Pierre Bernac and the soprano Denise Duval, touring in Europe and America with each, and making many recordings. He was among the first composers to see the importance of the gramophone, in his later years, and for decades after his death, Poulenc had a reputation, particularly in his native country, as a humorous, lightweight composer, and his religious music was often overlooked. Poulenc was born in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, the child and only son of Émile Poulenc and his wife, Jenny. Émile Poulenc was a joint owner of the Établissements Poulenc Frères and he was a member of a pious Roman Catholic family from Espalion in the département of Aveyron. Jenny Poulenc was from a Parisian family with artistic interests. In Poulencs view, the two sides of his nature grew out of this background, a religious faith from his fathers family. The critic Claude Rostand later described Poulenc as half monk and half naughty boy and he took piano lessons from the age of five, when he was eight he first heard the music of Debussy and was fascinated by the originality of the sound. Other composers whose works influenced his development were Schubert and Stravinsky, the formers Winterreise, at his fathers insistence, Poulenc followed a conventional school career, studying at the Lycée Condorcet in Paris rather than at a music conservatory. In 1916 a childhood friend, Raymonde Linossier, introduced Poulenc to Adrienne Monniers bookshop, There he met the avant-garde poets Guillaume Apollinaire, Max Jacob, Paul Éluard and Louis Aragon. He later set many of their poems to music, in the same year he became the pupil of the pianist Ricardo Viñes. The biographer Henri Hell comments that Viñess influence on his pupil was profound, I admired him madly, because, at this time, in 1914, he was the only virtuoso who played Debussy and Ravel. That meeting with Viñes was paramount in my life, I owe him everything, in reality it is to Viñes that I owe my fledgling efforts in music and everything I know about the piano. When Poulenc was sixteen his mother died, his father died two years later, Viñes became more than a teacher, he was, in the words of Myriam Chimènes in the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, the young mans spiritual mentor
9.
Frederick Delius
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Frederick Theodore Albert Delius, CH was an English composer. Born in the north of England to a mercantile family. He was sent to Florida in the United States in 1884 to manage an orange plantation, there he soon neglected his managerial duties, and in 1886 returned to Europe. Having been influenced by African-American music during his stay in Florida. Deliuss first successes came in Germany, where Hans Haym and other conductors promoted his music from the late 1890s, in Deliuss native Britain, it was 1907 before his music made regular appearances in concert programmes, after Thomas Beecham took it up. After 1918 Delius began to suffer the effects of syphilis, contracted during his years in Paris. He became paralysed and blind, but completed some late compositions between 1928 and 1932 with the aid of an amanuensis, Eric Fenby. The lyricism in Deliuss early compositions reflected the music he had heard in America, as his skills matured, he developed a style uniquely his own, characterised by his individual orchestration and his uses of chromatic harmony. Deliuss music has been intermittently popular, and often subject to critical attacks. Delius was born in Bradford in Yorkshire and he was baptised as Fritz Theodore Albert Delius, and used the forename Fritz until he was about 40. He was the second of four born to Julius Delius and his wife Elise Pauline. Deliuss parents were born in Bielefeld, Westphalia, of Dutch origin, Juliuss father, Ernst Friedrich Delius, had served under Blücher in the Napoleonic Wars. Julius moved to England to further his career as a wool merchant, the Delius household was musical, famous musicians such as Joseph Joachim and Carlo Alfredo Piatti were guests, and played for the family. Despite his German parentage, the young Fritz was drawn to the music of Chopin and Grieg rather than the Austro-German music of Mozart and Beethoven, a preference that endured all his life. The young Delius was first taught the violin by a Mr. Bauerkeller of the Hallé Orchestra, from 1874 to 1878, Delius was educated at Bradford Grammar School, where the singer John Coates was his slightly older contemporary. He then attended the International College at Isleworth between 1878 and 1880, as a pupil he was neither especially quick nor diligent, but the college was conveniently close to London for Delius to attend concerts and opera. Julius Delius assumed that his son would play a part in the wool business. Deliuss first job was as the representative in Stroud in Gloucestershire
10.
Prince Igor
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Prince Igor is an opera in four acts with a prologue, written and composed by Alexander Borodin. The composer adapted the libretto from the Ancient Russian epic The Lay of Igors Host and he also incorporated material drawn from two medieval Kievan chronicles. The opera was unfinished upon the composers death in 1887 and was edited and completed by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. It was first performed in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1890, original Composition, 1869–1887 After briefly considering Lev Meis The Tsars Bride as a subject, Borodin began looking for a new project for his first opera. Vladimir Stasov, critic and advisor to The Mighty Handful, suggested The Lay of Igors Host, a 12th-century epic prose poem, initially, Borodin found the proposition intriguing, but daunting, Your outline is so complete that everything seems clear to me and suits me perfectly. But will I manage to carry out my own task to the end, as they say here, He who is afraid of the wolf doesnt go into the woods. So I shall give it a try and he soon began to have doubts and ceased composing. He expressed his misgivings in a letter to his wife, There is too little drama here, to me, opera without drama, in the strict sense, is unnatural. Of the eight numbers he had composed for Act 4 of Mlada, Borodin returned to Prince Igor in 1874, inspired by the success of his colleagues Rimsky-Korsakov and Mussorgsky in the staging of their historical operas, The Maid of Pskov and Boris Godunov. This period also marks the creation of two new characters, the deserters Skula and Yeroshka, who have much in common with the rogue monks Varlaam and Misail in Boris Godunov. Which, in the epilogue of the opera extolled Igors exploits, was shifted by the author himself to the prologue of the opera, at present this chorus extolls Igor as he starts on his expedition against the Polovtsy. The episodes of the eclipse, of the parting from Yaroslavna. In those days this whole part was non-existent, and the chorus formed one unbroken number of rather considerable dimensions. The idea of an epilogue in the original scenario was no doubt inspired by the example of A Life for the Tsar by Mikhail Glinka. Borodins primary occupation was chemistry, including research and teaching, however, he also spent much time in support of womens causes, much to the consternation of his fellow composers, who felt he should devote his time and talent to music. In 1876, a frustrated Stasov gave up hope that Borodin would ever finish Prince Igor and it was high time to copy out the parts. In despair I heaped reproaches on Borodin and he, too, was none too happy. At last, giving up all hope, I offered to him with the orchestration
11.
Hector Berlioz
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Hector Berlioz was a French Romantic composer, best known for his compositions Symphonie fantastique and Grande messe des morts. Berlioz made significant contributions to the orchestra with his Treatise on Instrumentation. He specified huge orchestral forces for some of his works, and he also composed around 50 songs. His influence was critical for the development of Romanticism, especially in composers like Richard Wagner, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Franz Liszt, Richard Strauss. Hector Berlioz was born in France at La Côte-Saint-André in the département of Isère, Louis was an agnostic, with a liberal outlook, his mother, Marie-Antoinette, was a devout Roman Catholic. He had five siblings in all, three of whom did not survive to adulthood, the other two, Nanci and Adèle, remained close to Berlioz throughout his life. Berlioz was not a prodigy, unlike some other famous composers of the time, he began studying music at age 12, writing small compositions. As a result of his fathers discouragement, he never learned to play the piano and he became proficient at guitar, flageolet and flute. He learned harmony from textbooks alone—he was not formally trained, the majority of his early compositions were romances and chamber pieces. While yet at age twelve, as recalled in his Mémoires, he experienced his first passion for a woman and he also began to visit the Paris Conservatoire library, seeking out scores of Glucks operas and making personal copies of parts of them. He recalled in his Mémoires his first encounter with Luigi Cherubini, Cherubini attempted to throw the impetuous Berlioz out of the library since he was not a formal music student at that time. Berlioz also heard two operas by Gaspare Spontini, a composer who influenced him through their friendship, and whom he later championed when working as a critic, from then on, he devoted himself to composition. He was encouraged in his endeavors by Jean-François Le Sueur, director of the Royal Chapel, in 1823, he wrote his first article—a letter to the journal Le corsaire defending Spontinis La vestale. Despite his parents disapproval, in 1824 he formally abandoned his studies to pursue a career in music. This work was rehearsed and revised after the rehearsal but not performed until the following year, Berlioz later claimed to have burnt the score, but it was re-discovered in 1991. Later that year or in 1825, he began to compose the opera Les francs-juges, the work survives only in fragments, the overture has been much recorded and is sometimes played in concert. In 1826 he began attending the Conservatoire to study composition under Jean-François Le Sueur and he also submitted a fugue to the Prix de Rome, but was eliminated in the primary round. Winning the prize would become an obsession until he won it in 1830
