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5 unusual facts about Harriet Smithson


1814 in Ireland

27 May - Harriet Smithson makes her stage debut at the Crow Street Theatre, Dublin, as Albina Mandeville in Frederick Reynolds's The Will.

Harriet Smithson

This continued until the 1832 performance of Lélio, a sequel to his Symphonie Fantastique, when he discovered a mutual acquaintance and offered her a box of tickets.

La muette de Portici

The dancer Lise Noblet played the mute title role, a part later taken by other dancers such as Marie Taglioni and Fanny Elssler, also the actress Harriet Smithson (the future wife of Hector Berlioz).

Lélio

Both the symphony and Lélio were inspired by the composer's unhappy love affairs, the symphony by Harriet Smithson, Lélio by Camille Moke, who had broken off her engagement to Berlioz, prompting the composer to contemplate suicide.

Mary Martha Pearson

Miss Smithson of Drury Lane Theatre in the character of Ellen in the Falls of the Clyde (exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1823).



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