Berlioz wrote Symphonie Fantastique partly as an expression of his obsessive love for Harriet Smithson. Lélio, or The Return to Life, is a sequel to that work, more directly and overtly autobiographical, depicting the hero's awakening from the drugged dream and his subsequent thoughts and actions. The piece daringly combines narration and music in six movements, ranging from a simple song with piano accompaniment to two large-scale choral works, with dramatic monologues in-between them. Many of the musical portions are directly taken from or inspired by earlier works or fragments of ideas. The narration itself is a chance for Berlioz to speak directly to his audiences and critics. One of the monologues is an attack on a Parisian music critic, Fétis (who was given to demanding "good taste" in everything and often adapted the works of other composers, such as Beethoven, to reflect this taste). The narrator even mimicked Fétis' voice during this monologue, and the critic was outraged by the laugher and applause from both audience and orchestra. In another section, the narrator longs for "this Juliet, this Ophelia, whom my heart is always seeking." Berlioz was expressing his obsession not only with Harriet Smithson, who had inspired the murderous fantasies of Symphonie Fantastique, but also Camille Moke, his "Ariel, that enchanting fairy," a piano instructor who had married another man. The music dwells on many of the subjects which consumed Berlioz's attention. In the first, a nymph's song lures a fisherman to follow her into the waters. The music has a light surface charm, but hints at darker things, as her call becomes more alluring and the music more disturbed. The "Chorus of Shades," written originally as part of his La Mort de Cleopatre, is powerful and mysterious, as the spirits of the dead remind the living that they, too, shall perish. As the narrator longs to be freed of civilization, a chorus of brigands sings a rousing, rollicking song about the joys of a free life, with the pleasures of their female prisoners. A more tender note is drawn as Lélio's own voice (sung by a singer, rather than the narrator) longs for the bliss of love, and in arching, passionate phrases, calls for his beloved to come to him. An instrumental harp interlude follows, and the work ends with the narrator himself conducting a chorus in which the spirits of the island (from Shakespeare's The Tempest) bid a sad farewell to Miranda, and finally falling back into despair.

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