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
equaled 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 stigmatized 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 can not be numbered among
those great creative artists who by force of individuality have molded
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
car, of wedding rich and gorgeous music with splendid spectacle, gives
him a 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 Assomption 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 honored 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 Italianized 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, 1794, 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
afterward the critics spoke of him as one of the best pianists in
Berlin. He studied successively under the greatest masters of the time,
Clemcnti, Bernhard Anselm Weber, and Abbé Vogler. While in the latter's
school at Darmstadt, he had for fellow pupils Carl von Weber, Winter,
and Gansbachcr. 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 afterward 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 recognized 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. "II Crociato" was
produced in Paris in 1825, and the same year in London. In the latter
city, Veluti, 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 endeavor 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."