"My life is a novel that I find most interesting", Hector Berlioz is said to have remarked to a friend. At the age of 45 he started to write his autobiography, in which he conceals neither his amours nor his attempted suicides – describing an eventful life between genius and madness. One of the experiences Berlioz describes is the first time he saw a production of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet in Paris. If his diary entries are to be believed, he was so shocked that he almost lost consciousness during the performance. Soon afterwards he processed this theatrical experience in his choral symphony Roméo et Juliette. As in ancient Greek tragedies, the chorus recounts the action while the dialogue between Romeo and Juliet takes purely instrumental form. Asked about this composition, his favourite, Berlioz confessed that what he liked best was the Adagio – the scène d’amour – from Roméo et Juliette.