ABSTRACT
Exactly when the RCA-Victor two-LP boxed set of Romeo and Juliette, Hector Berlioz’ dramatic symphony came into the Lydon family, I don’t recall. The booklet for the set (Charles Munch conducting the Boston Symphony and 291Harvard-Radcliffe choruses) bears the copyright date 1953, so it may have been Christmas our first year in Milton, perhaps a year or two later. Mom could have given the set to Dad: she had sung in the Radcliffe chorus in her college days and she liked Berlioz—Harold in Italy was another of her favorites. I certainly didn’t give it or get it. For me, Romeo and Juliette was one of the family records, one I don’t remember ever picking to play myself.
