Giacomo Meyerbeer

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Lore & Background

Meyerbeer was born to a wealthy Jewish family in Tasdorf, near Berlin. His father was the wealthy financier Judah Herz Beer and his mother, Amalia (Malka) Wulff, also came from the moneyed elite. He began his musical career as a pianist, making his public debut in 1801 playing Mozart's D minor Piano Concerto in Berlin. The *Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung* reported: 'The amazing keyboard playing of young Bär (a Jewish lad of 9), who carried off the difficult passages and other solo parts with aplomb, and has fine powers of rendition even more rarely found in one of his age, made the concert even more interesting.' He studied with Antonio Salieri and Carl Friedrich Zelter, and later with the Abbé Vogler at Darmstadt between 1810 and 1812, where he formed a close friendship with Carl Maria von Weber and other pupils, establishing the Harmonischer Verein (Musical Union) to support each other with favorable press criticism and networking. On 12 February 1813 he was appointed 'Court Composer' by Grand Duke Ludwig of Hesse-Darmstadt. He played timpani at the premiere of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony in December 1813, though Beethoven complained that Meyerbeer was 'always behind the beat.'

Reader's Guide

Meyerbeer's significance lies in his creation of the grand opera style that dominated Parisian stages. After early operas in Germany failed, he went to Italy in 1816, enabled by his family's financial support, to study Italian opera. There he became impressed by Gioachino Rossini and wrote a series of Italian operas on Rossinian models, including *Romilda e Costanza* (Padua, 1817), *Semiramide riconosciuta* (Turin, 1819), *Emma di Resburgo* (Venice, 1819), *Margherita d'Anjou* (Milan, 1820), and *L'esule di Granata* (Milan, 1821). His 1824 opera *Il crociato in Egitto* first brought him a Europe-wide reputation; it was the last opera ever written to feature a castrato. But it was *Robert le diable* (1831) which raised his status to great celebrity. He was at his peak with *Les Huguenots* (1836) and *Le prophète* (1849); his last opera, *L'Africaine*, was performed posthumously. His operas made him the most frequently performed composer at the world's leading opera houses in the nineteenth century. After his death, critical assaults by Richard Wagner and his supporters led to a decline in popularity; his operas were suppressed by the Nazi regime in Germany and neglected through most of the twentieth century. In the 21st century, his major French grand operas have begun to reappear in the repertory of numerous European opera houses.

Did You Know?

• Meyerbeer's birth name was Jacob Liebmann Beer; he adopted the surname Meyerbeer on the death of his grandfather Liepmann Meyer Wulff in 1812 and Italianized his first name to Giacomo during his period of study in Italy, around 1817.
• He played timpani at the premiere of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony in December 1813; Beethoven complained that Meyerbeer was 'always behind the beat.'
• During a visit to Sicily in 1816, Meyerbeer noted down a number of folksongs, constituting the earliest collection of folk music of the region.
• His 1824 opera *Il crociato in Egitto* was the last opera ever written to feature a castrato.
• Meyerbeer was an early supporter of Richard Wagner, enabling the first production of Wagner's opera *Rienzi*.