Hector Berlioz’s first encounter with Byron’s Corsair was in Rome at St. Peter’s Cathedral:  

During the fierce summer heat, I used to spend my whole days there, comfortably established in a confessional, with Byron as my companion. I sat enjoying the coolness and stillness, unbroken by any sound save the splashing of the fountains in the square outside…and there, at my leisure, I sat drinking in that burning poetry.  

Byron’s “burning poetry” was not the only influence on the eponymous Corsair Overture. In February 1831, Berlioz’s ship nearly capsized in a storm en route to Rome from Marseilles, and during the dangerous voyage, he met a Venetian corsair (pirate). A few months later, he discovered that his fiancée, Camille Marie Moke, had married Ignaz Pleyel while he was abroad. He immediately planned murder and suicide, although he was “yanked out like a fish” following an attempt to drown himself in the Mediterranean. Berlioz spent three weeks convalescing in Nice, reading romance novels beneath the ruins of a tower and sketching the overture, first called La Tour de Nice (The Tower of Nice) and now known as Le Corsaire. It premiered in Paris in January 1845 under Berlioz’s direction.   

As Jacques Barzun notes, Berlioz’s adventures are audible in the music: his sea voyage, Venetian adventure, and the spirit of Byron’s Corsair. The “contradictory feelings” Berlioz admired in Byron’s work are audible from the start, too. After two sharp opening chords comes a soft, slow first section, while the second section offers another dramatic contrast with its fiery tempo and strident tone. In the third section, the Allegro comes back even more boldly, with forceful chords giving way to a massive brass climax.