When in doubt, go with Berlioz. You can’t go wrong with Berlioz. Here is the Roman Carnival overture, for which Berlioz re-tooled a number of melodies from his first opera, Benvenuto Cellini, which–like many of Berlioz’s works during his lifetime, sadly–failed in its day but has since found much greater acceptance.
The Roman Carnival Overture is something of a showpiece; it’s one of Berlioz’s most overtly crowd-pleasing works, with that gorgeous melody in the first section and the infectious carnival dance that makes up the overture’s second half. It’s one of the most infectious works I know.
