Few great names in art have been the occasion of such diversity of
judgment as Giacomo Meyerbeer, whose works fill so large a place in
French music. By one school of critics he is lauded beyond all measure
as one "whose scientific skill and gorgeous orchestration are only
equalled by his richness of melody and genius for dramatic and scenic
effects; by far the greatest composer of recent years;" by another
class we hear him stigmatised as "the very caricature of the universal
Mozart ... the Cosmopolitan Jew, who hawks his wares among all nations
indifferently, and does his best to please customers of every kind."
The truth lies between the two, as is wont to be the case in such
extremes of opinion. Meyerbeer's remarkable talent so nearly
approaches genius as to make the distinction a difficult one. He
cannot be numbered among those great creative artists who by force of
individuality have moulded musical epochs and left an undying imprint
on their own and succeeding ages. On the other hand, his remarkable
power of combining the resources of the lyric stage in a grand mosaic
of all that can charm the eye and ear, of wedding rich and gorgeous
music with splendid spectacle, gives him an unique place in music;
for, unlike Wagner, whose ideas of stage necessities are no less
exacting, Meyerbeer aims at no reforms in lyric music, but only to
develop the old forms to their highest degree of effect, under
conditions that shall gratify the general artistic sense. To
accomplish this, he spares no means either in or out of music. Though
a German, there is but little of the Teutonic _genre_ in the music of
Weber's fellow-pupil. When at the outset he wrote for Italy, he showed
but little of that easy assumption of the genius of Italian art which
many other foreign composers have attained. It was not till he formed
his celebrated art partnership with Scribe, the greatest of
librettists, and succeeded in opening the gates of the Grand Opera of
Paris with all its resources, more vast than exist anywhere else, that
Meyerbeer found his true vocation, the production of elaborate dramas
in music of the eclectic school. He inaugurated no clearly defined
tendencies in his art; he distinctively belongs to no national school
of music; but his long and important connection with the French lyric
stage classifies him unmistakably with the composers of this nation.
The subject of this sketch belonged to a family of marked ability.
Jacob Beer was a rich Jewish banker of Berlin, highly honoured for his
robust intellect and scholarly culture, as well as his wealth.
William, one of the sons, became a distinguished astronomer; another,
Michael, achieved distinction as a dramatic poet; while the eldest,
Jacob, was the composer, who gained his renown under the Italianised
name of Giacomo Meyerbeer, a part of the surname having been adopted
from that of the rich banker Meyer, who left the musician a great
fortune.
MEYERBEER was born at Berlin, September 5, 1791, and was a musical
prodigy from his earliest years. When only four years old he would
repeat on the piano the airs he heard from the hand-organs, composing
his own accompaniment. At five he took lessons of Lanska, a pupil of
Clementi, and at six he made his appearance at a concert. Three years
afterwards the critics spoke of him as one of the best pianists in
Berlin. He studied successively under the greatest masters of the
time, Clementi, Bernhard Anselm Weber, and Abbé Vogler. While in the
latter's school at Darmstadt, he had for fellow-pupils Carl von Weber,
Winter, and Gansbacher. Every morning the abbé called together his
pupils after mass, gave them some theoretical instruction, then
assigned each one a theme for composition. There was great emulation
and friendship between Meyerbeer and Weber, which afterwards cooled,
however, owing to Weber's disgust at Meyerbeer's lavish catering to
an extravagant taste. Weber's severe and bitter criticisms were not
forgiven by the Franco-German composer.
Meyerbeer's first work was the oratorio "Gott und die Natur," which
was performed before the Grand Duke with such success as to gain for
him the appointment of court composer. Meyerbeer's concerts at
Darmstadt and Berlin were brilliant exhibitions; and Moscheles, no
mean judge, has told us that if Meyerbeer had devoted himself to the
piano, no performer in Europe could have surpassed him. By advice of
Salieri, whom Meyerbeer met in Vienna, he proceeded to Italy to study
the cultivation of the voice; for he seems in early life to have
clearly recognised how necessary it is for the operatic composer to
understand this, though, in after-years, he treated the voice as
ruthlessly in many of his most important arias and scenas as he would
a brass instrument. He arrived in Vienna just as the Rossini madness
was at its height, and his own blood was fired to compose operas _à la
Rossini_ for the Italian theatres. So he proceeded with prodigious
industry to turn out operas. In 1818 he wrote "Romilda e Costanza" for
Padua; in 1819, "Semiramide" for Turin; in 1820, "Emma di Resburgo"
for Venice; in 1822, "Margherita d'Anjou" for Milan; and in 1823,
"L'Esule di Granata," also for Milan. These works of the composer's
'prentice hand met with the usual fate of the production of the
thousand and one musicians who pour forth operas in unremitting flow
for the Italian theatres; but they were excellent drill for the future
author of "Robert le Diable" and "Les Huguenots." On returning to
Germany Meyerbeer was very sarcastically criticised on the one side as
a fugitive from the ranks of German music, on the other as an imitator
of Rossini.
Meyerbeer returned to Venice, and in 1824 brought out "Il Crociato in
Egitto" in that city, an opera which made the tour of Europe, and
established a reputation for the author as the coming rival of
Rossini, no one suspecting from what Meyerbeer had then accomplished
that he was about to strike boldly out in a new direction. "Il
Crociato" was produced in Paris in 1825, and the same year in London.
In the latter city, Velluti, the last of the male sopranists, was one
of the principal singers in the opera; and it was said by some of the
ill-natured critics that curiosity to see and hear this singer of a
peculiar kind, of whom it was said, "Non vir sed Veluti," had as much
to do with the success of the opera as its merits. Lord
Mount-Edgcumbe, however, an excellent critic, wrote of it "as quite of
the new school, but not copied from its founder, Rossini; original,
odd, flighty, and it might be termed fantastic, but at times
beautiful. Here and there most delightful melodies and harmonies
occurred, but it was unequal, solos being as rare as in all the modern
operas." This was the last of Meyerbeer's operas written in the
Italian style.
In 1827 the composer married, and for several years lived a quiet,
secluded life. The loss of his first two children so saddened him as
to concentrate his attention for a while on church music. During this
period he composed only a "Stabat," a "Miserere," a "Te Deum," and
eight of Klopstock's songs. But he was preparing for that new
departure on which his reputation as a great composer now rests, and
which called forth such bitter condemnation on the one hand, such
thunders of eulogy on the other. His old fellow-pupil, Weber, wrote of
him in after-years--"He prostituted his profound, admirable, and
serious German talent for the applause of the crowd which he ought to
have despised." And Mendelssohn wrote to his father in words of still
more angry disgust--"When in 'Robert le Diable' nuns appear one after
the other and endeavour to seduce the hero, till at length the lady
abbess succeeds; when the hero, aided by a magic branch, gains access
to the sleeping apartment of his lady, and throws her down, forming a
tableau which is applauded here, and will perhaps be applauded in
Germany; and when, after that, she implores for mercy in an aria;
when, in another opera, a girl undresses herself, singing all the
while that she will be married to-morrow, it may be effective, but I
find no music in it. For it is vulgar, and if such is the taste of
the day, and therefore necessary, I prefer writing sacred music."