Get your own Free Home PageThe battle between opera as a form of enlightenment and opera as a form of entertainment has been raging throughout much of the 19th century, and all of the 20th. Basically, the original cause was an intolerant attitude toward Italian opera on Mendelssohn's part, starting apparently with a letter he wrote while in Italy in 1831. Mendelssohn was no admirer of Italian music, his views being succinctly summarized in a letter criticizing music by Bellini and Pacini where he states «just as a cicisbeo (gigolo) will for ever be repulsive to my feelings, so it is with Italian music. But, of course, Mendelssohn regarded Meyerbeer with the same disdain that he had for Pacini and Bellini, and Schumann as well as Wagner were only too pleased to follow in his footsteps.
One suspects that the negative remarks from Meyerbeer's detractors, who were almost invariably Germans, and who had been far less successful than he during his lifetime, were largely due to the fact that he had not written typically German music, but was far more heavily influenced by the Italian music of Rossini, and the French music of Cherubini and Spontini. That he in turn heavily influenced both Wagner and Verdi--in fact that both Wagner and Verdi owed him a tremendous debt is often admitted grudgingly or totally forgotten.
A more detailed discussion and refutation of the charges made against Meyerbeer (together with Halévy, Auber, Flotow, and others of their contemporaries) is beyond the scope of this biography. although it can be found at Refutation
. Suffice it to say that they went far beyond negative comments on the music, but also included aspersions on the poor taste and materialism of the French bourgeoisie that flocked to hear it, completely forgetting that Meyerbeer and his disciples were just as popular in other societies which were still dominated by the nobility, such as Russia.
To return to Meyerbeer, he was born in Vogelsdorf, near Berlin, on Sep. 5, 1791. as Yaakov Liebmann Beer. His father, Judah Herz Beer was a wealthy sugar refiner in Germany and Italy. His mother, Malka Liebmann Meyer Wulff, also known as Amalia, was the daughter of a wealthy Berlin merchant and banker who made a fortune delivering supplies to Prussian troops, and also was the director of the Prussian lottery. Yaakov (or Jakob) was the eldest of three boys. His brother Michael became a well known German playwright, author of two successful plays, Struensee and Der Pariah. His other brother, Wilhelm, became a businessman and an amateur astronomer who achieved fame by publishing the first map of the moon in the 1820s.
Jakob eventually conflated his name to Meyerbeer, and probably started using Giacomo as his given name while he was in Italy. He received a thorough education in all the humanities, but soon started specializing in music, distinguishing himself as a pianist while still a child. He became known as a child prodigy, one of the finest pianists in all of Berlin, where the family then resided. While studying composition and counterpoint with the Abbe Vogler in Darmstadt for several years, he became friends with Carl Maria von Weber. His first large scale work was an oratorio, composed in 1811. A biblical opera followed in 1812 and a Singspiel in 1813. He spent some time in both Vienna and Paris. Then, at the suggestion of Antonio Salieri, he made his way to Italy in order to develop the fine art of composing for the voice. He reached Italy in 1816, at a time when Rossini was in his greatest glory, and other composers tended to emulate his style. His first effort in the peninsula was a cantata for solo clarinet, orchestra, soprano and chorus entitled Gli Amore de Teolinda, which he composed in Venice specifically for the great clarinettist Heinrich Josef Baermann and the soprano Helene Harlas, who were both good friends and suppor- ters. Then, Meyerbeer wrote six Italian operas during a span of seven years, with generally increasing success. He was one of three or four major rivals to Rossini while he was in Italy, the others being Saverio Mercadante, Giovanni Pacini and possibly Michele Carafa. The latter had been moderately successful with Gabriella di Vergy in 1816, Mercadante's opera semi-seria Elisa e Claudio triumphed in 1821 and Pacini had written several important light operas by the time Rossini left Italy for Paris. The field was wide open, and Meyerbeer took full advantage of the situation with his Crociato in Egitto (Venice, 1824). This was the first really successful opera seria by a composer other than Rossini in about a decade. (The last one had been Mayr's Medea in Corinto.) Even though it sounds much more like Rossini than Meyerbeer's later French grand operas, it also was the first work of the period to show significant departures from Rossini's style. Perhaps the most important of these was the greater emphasis on the dramatic situations, the first traces of what was to be the lyrical pathos which was to be so much a feature of Italian opera, and the double grand march in the act I finale.
After shuttling back and forth across Western Europe for some time, Meyerbeer moved his domicile to Paris by 1827. Influenced by the success of Weber's Der Freischütz, he decided to do an opera with the Devil as its central character. By the spring of 1827 he was already working on a three-act opera comique for the Théâtre Feydeau on the subject of Robert le Diable. But the success of Auber's La Muette de Portici in 1828, among other factors, caused him to change to a five act version for the Opéra. Both La Muette and William Tell pointed the way towards increased realism in the mis en scene and more expanded use of the chorus -- ideas of integrating these elements, The seeds of these principles were already planted in Crociato, and the salesmanship of Louis Veron, the director of the Opéra, gave Meyerbeer the final impetus for the switch to a grand opera. The world premiere took place at the Paris Opera on November 21, 1831, a little more than two years after the premiere of William Tell. Robert le Diable was not only to catapult Meyerbeer into a renown eclipsing that of Rossini for nearly a century, but was also to have a very significant effect on the history of the art form to the extent that it was a factor in causing Rossini to retire from composing any more operas. It was widely acclaimed by both the press and public, with cash receipts reaching levels that would have been deemed impossible a few years earlier. By April, 1834, the opera passed the 100 performance mark, a good five months ahead of William Tell, even though the Rossini opera had enjoyed a 27 month head start. In the meantime it had been translated into both English and German (two versions of each) and had started its triumphant tour of the civilized world. When it was given in Berlin at the start of the year 2000, it was hailed as a neglected masterpiece.
As it turned out, Robert le Diable launched Meyerbeer on a fantastically brilliant career. His next opera, Les Huguenots (Paris, 1836), was soon to be, along with Don Giovanni, one of the operas most admired by nineteenth century audiences and critics. From this point until his death, not quite 30 years later, Meyerbeer was at the very top of his profession, with no living operatic composer earning as much respect. Is it any wonder that when the position of Kappelmeister (music director) in Berlin became open it was offered to Meyerbeer? But, first, let us backtrack a little.
Spontini had held that position at the Hofoper from 1820 to 1842. At the time, Berlin was already one of the most important capital cities of Europe, but trailed behind Paris and Vienna in the importance of its opera house, and the number of world premieres of works by major composers to be given there. Weber's Der Freischütz had been premiered there on June 18, 1821, and Spontini's Agnese von Hohenstaufen on June 12, 1829. But Spontini had been hired by the previous king, Frederick William III, and when the latter, who was also his protector, died, the hot tempered and outspoken Spontini lacked friends, and did not get along all that well with the new king. He committed lèse majesté in 1841, and was dismissed from his post. The German born Meyerbeer, then the toast of the entire operatic world, was summoned to Berlin to replace him. He was instrumental in bringing many major works, including his own Les Huguenots, to Berlin for the first time. While in Berlin, he composed his next opera, a Singspiel: Das Feldlager in Schlesien. A discussion of Feldlager in Schlesien can be found at Feldlager Discussion.
Meyerbeer was to become less than happy in Berlin over the next few years, partly because he did not get along well with his immediate "superior", the intendant Kützner, and partly because he felt that conditions at the opera house were deteriorating. He secured two leaves of absence from the king, the first for a year, and the second indefinitely. But the king did request that he continue to conduct the court concerts. While there, he composed incidental music to his late brother Michael's Struensee.
He returned to Paris a number of times during the 1840s, most importantly for the premiere of Le prophète, a tremendous triumph. Created by Anais Castellan (Berthe), Pauline Viardot-Garcia (Fides) and Gustave Roger (Jean), how could it be anything else? The next few years were spent staging his last opera in other European cities. Among them were London (in Italian), as well as Dresden, Vienna and Berlin (in German). The London and Berlin premieres were with Viardot, but with Mario in London and Joseph Tichatschek in Berlin. It is interesting to note that, while Meyerbeer's Le prophete was making its triumphal tour of German and Austrian cities in early 1850, Wagner was in exile in Switzerland, and having difficulty getting his own operas performed. It was at approxiimately that time that Wagner wrote his anti-semitic diatribe Jews in Music, which contained the notorious "effects without causes" remark.
During the next few years, Le prophète was perhaps an even bigger success than Les Huguenots had been, with the great Viardot making the role of Fidés her own, and even occasionally acting as if the role belonged to her: This happened during the 1852 London season, resulting in a major con troversy between Viardot and the reigning prima donna in London, Giulia Grisi. Viardot was to sing elsewhere, Johanna Wagner, who had been engaged to sing the role in London was unavailable, for legal reasons, so the management asked Giulia Grisi to sing Fidés. Unfortunately, there was bad blood between the two ladies, and Viardot's adherents were absolutely furious at Grisi for daring to "appropriate" one of their idol's roles.
During the early 1850s, Meyerbeer continued to reside in Berlin, where he still remained as director of the court concerts. He was working on various projects, the most important of which was the revision of Feldlager into L'etoile du Nord. This was done in accord with the wishes of the management of the Opéra Comique for him to modify Feldlager for a production in Paris. But he did much more than modify it--he reworked the entire score, retaining only six numbers from Feldlager. The scene was switched to a village on the Gulf of Finland, the male protagonist became the czar of Russia, who was given some of the music originally sung by Saaldorf, and the role of Conrad was eliminated. Much of Vielka's music, including the famous "air with two flutes" was assigned to the future empress Catherine. Instead of Frederick II playing the flute, it was Peter the great of Russia. Some additional new characters were added, including Georges and Danilowitz.
All operas composed for the Opéra Comique were required to have spoken dialogue, and be in no more than three acts. But Meyerbeer decided to make changes in L'etoile du Nord for theatres outside France, including recitatives for London, and the addition of two more pieces for Danilowitz for Dresden, where Joseph Tichatschek was to sing the role. When it was given in Wexford in 1996, the triple march was simplified into an ordinary single march. But, as an indication of the relative importance of Meyerbeer and Verdi at the time of the London premiere, the British press gave L'etoile du Nord twice as much space as it gave to Verdi's Il trovatore.
Meyerbeer continued as an active composer until his death in Paris on May 2, 1864. Le Pardon de Ploermel (Paris, Opéra Comique, 1859) came next. It again had spoken dialogue, which were replaced by recitatives when it was given in London as Dinorah later that year. In the meantime, work on L'africaine progressed, and it was finally given posthumously in Paris on April 28, 1865. With the release in 1999 of Feldlager in Schlesien by the Meyerbeer Fan Club, and that in 2003 of Margherita d'Anjou by Opera Rara, nine of his operas are now available on CD, These include, in addition to the two operas released from 1999 to 2003, the four French grand operas, the two operas comiques, and Il crociato. Looking at these individually, it would seem that some of them (Les Huguenots, Le prophète, Crociato, Robert le Diable, Dinorah, Margherita d'Anjou ) exist in reasonably complete and well sung versions. Adequate versions of others, especially L'étoile du Nord and L'africaine are badly needed, and would be most welcome.
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