Lélio was composed during Berlioz's stay in Italy in 1831. In April of that year he set out from Rome, where he held a scholarship as winner of the Prix de Rome, and travelled as far as Nice on hearing that his fiancee Camille Moke had rejected him in favour of another suitor. He had intended to return to Paris to exact revenge, but then he abandoned his plan and instead spent three weeks in Nice, returning in stages to Rome. On this return journey he conceived the idea of a semi-theatrical wo...