IN the year that Queen Victoria came to the throne Berlioz completed his Opera, Benvenuto Cellini. Next year he produced it at the Grand Opera in Paris, where it was a complete failure. In 1853 it was given in London at Covent Garden (when the composer himself conducted), but failed. Only the Overture won applause. Berlioz himself says, ' It had a rather extravagant success, whilst everything else during the evening was hissed with a unanimity and an energy that in themselves were much to be admired.'