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MEYERBEER, GIACOMO (1791-1863)

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Originally appearing in Volume V18, Page 350 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MEYERBEER, GIACOMO (1791-1863) , See also:German composer, first known as See also:Jakob See also:Meyer See also:Beer, was See also:born at See also:Berlin on the 5th of See also:September 1791,1 of a wealthy and talented Jewish See also:family. His See also:father, Herz Beer, was a banker; his See also:mother, Amalie (nee Wulf), was a woman of high intellectual culture; and two of his See also:brothers distinguished themselves in See also:astronomy and literature. He studied the See also:pianoforte, first under Lauska, and afterwards under Lauska's See also:master, See also:Clementi. When seven years old he played See also:Mozart's See also:Concerto in D See also:Minor in public, and at nine he was pronounced the best pianist in Berlin. For See also:composition he was placed under Zelter, and then under See also:Bernard See also:Weber, director of the Berlin See also:opera, by whom he was introduced to the See also:Abbe See also:Vogler. Vogler invited him to See also:Darmstadt, and in 1810 received him into his See also:house, where he formed an intimate friendship with Karl Maria von Weber, who also took daily lessons in See also:counterpoint, See also:fugue and extempore See also:organ-playing. At the end of two years the See also:grand See also:duke appointed Meyerbeer composer to the See also:court. His first opera, Jephtha's Geliibde, failed lamentably at Darmstadt in 1811, and his second, Wirth and Gast (Alimelek), at See also:Vienna in 1814. These checks discouraged him so cruelly that he feared he had mistaken his vocation. Nevertheless, by See also:advice of See also:Salieri he determined to study vocalization in See also:Italy, and then to See also:form a new See also:style. But at See also:Venice he was so captivated by See also:Rossini that, renouncing all thought of originality, he produced a See also:succession of seven See also:Italian operas—Romilda e Costanza, Semiramide riconosciuta, Eduardo e Cristina, Emma di Resburgo, Margherita d'See also:Anjou, L'Esule di Granata and Il Crociato in Egitto—which all achieved a success as brilliant as it was unexpected. Against this See also:act of See also:treason to German See also:art Weber protested most earnestly; and before See also:long Meyerbeer himself See also:grew tired of his defection.

An invitation to See also:

Paris in 1826 led him to See also:review his position dispassionately, and he came to the conclusion that he was wasting his See also:powers. For several years he produced nothing in public; but, in See also:concert with See also:Scribe, he planned his first See also:French opera, See also:Robert le Diable. This gorgeous spectacle was produced at the Grand Opera in 1831. It was the first of its See also:race, a grand romantic opera, with situations more theatrically effective than any that had been attempted either by See also:Cherubini or Rossini, and with See also:ballet See also:music such as had never yet been heard, even in Paris. Its popularity exceeded all expectations; yet for five years Meyerbeer appeared before the public no more. His next opera, See also:Les See also:Huguenots, was first performed in 1836. In gorgeous colouring, rhetorical force, consistency of dramatic treatment, and careful accentuation of individual types, it is at least the equal of Robert le Diable. In two points only did its See also:interest fall See also:short of that inspired by the earlier See also:work. Meyerbeer had shown himself so eminently successful in his treatment of the supernatural that one regretted the omission of that See also:element; and, more important still, the fifth act proved to be an See also:anti-See also:climax. The true interest of the See also:drama culminates at the See also:close of the See also:fourth act, when Raoul, leaping from the window to his See also:death, leaves See also:Valentine fainting upon the ground. The opera now usually ends at the fourth act. After the See also:production of Les Huguenots Meyerbeer spent many years in the preparation of his next greatest See also:works—L'Africaine and Le Prophete.

The libretti of both these operas were furnished 1 Or, according to some accounts, 1794. by Scribe; and both were subjected to countless changes; in fact, ,.he See also:

story of L'Africaine was more than once entirely rewritten. Meanwhile Meyerbeer accepted the See also:appointment of kapellmcister to the See also:king of See also:Prussia, and spent some years at Berlin, where he produced Ein Feldlager in Schlesien, a German opera, in which Jenny See also:Lind made her first See also:appearance in Prussia. Here also he composed, in 1846, the See also:overture to his See also:brother See also:Michael's drama, See also:Struensee. But his See also:chief care at this See also:period was bestowed upon the worthy presentation of the works of others. He began by producing his dead friend Weber's Euryanthe, with scrupulous See also:attention to the composer's See also:original See also:idea. With equal unselfishness he procured the See also:acceptance of See also:Rienzi and Der fliegende Hollander, the first two operas of See also:Richard See also:Wagner, who, then languishing in poverty and See also:exile, would, but for him, have found it impossible to obtain a See also:hearing in Berlin. With Jenny Lind as prima donna and Meyerbeer as conductor, the opera flourished brilliantly in the Prussian See also:capital; but the anxieties materially shortened the composer's See also:life. Meyerbeer produced Le Prophete at Paris in 1849. In 1854 he brought out L'Etoile du See also:nord at the Opera Comique, and in 1859 Le See also:Pardon de See also:Flannel (Dinorah). His last See also:great work, L'Africaine, was in active preparation at the Academie when, on the 23rd of See also:April 1863, he was seized with a sudden illness, and died on the 2nd of May. L'Africaine was produced with pious attention to the composer's minutest wishes, on the 28th of April 1865.

Meyerbeer's See also:

genius was criticized by contemporaries with widely different results. Mendelssohn thought his style exaggerated; See also:Fetis thought him one of the most original geniuses of the See also:age; Wagner ungratefully calls him " a miserable music-maker," and " a Jewish banker to whom it occurred to compose operas." The reality of his See also:talent has been recognized throughout all See also:Europe; and his name will live so long as intensity of See also:passion and See also:power of dramatic treatment are regarded as indispensable characteristics of dramatic music. But his work shows that these qualities, with the aid of an experienced See also:stage-writer, may be entirely See also:independent of genuine musical insight.

End of Article: MEYERBEER, GIACOMO (1791-1863)

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