berlioz started going to the opéra. he particularly liked the music of gluck and went to the library to study gluck’s scores. at the end of 1822 he found a good teacher. his name was le sueur. he made berlioz stop publishing his music until he had learned to compose properly. in 1826 he was officially a student at the conservatoire. he continued to study with le sueur and with reicha. he tried four times to win the important music prize called prix de rome. the first time he wrote a piece called "la mort d’orphée" ("the death of orpheus"). the judges said it was unplayable, but berlioz got an orchestra to play it. the second time he wrote a piece called "herminie" which had a tune he used later as the main tune for his "symphonie fantastique". the third time he wrote a cantata "la mort de cléopâtre" which is a wonderful work but he still did not win the prize. the fourth time he wrote a cantata "la mort de sardanapale", and he won the prize. nearly all the music for this work is now lost.