Harriet Smithson

Who was Harriet Smithson?

Henrietta Constance Smithson was an Anglo-Irish actress, the first wife of Hector Berlioz, and the inspiration for his Symphonie Fantastique.

Smithson was born on 18 March 1800 at Ennis, Co. Clare, Ireland, the daughter of a theatrical manager. She made her first stage appearance in 1814 at the Crow Street Theatre, Dublin, as Albina Mandeville in Frederick Reynolds's The Will. Three years later she made her first London appearance at Drury Lane as Letitia Hardy in The Belle's Stratagem.

She had no particular success in England, but went to Paris in 1828 and 1832, first with William Charles Macready. There she aroused immense enthusiasm as Desdemona, Juliet, and as Jane in The Tragedy of Jane Shore by Nicholas Rowe. She attracted a host of admirers, among them Hector Berlioz.