Giacomo Meyerbeer was born in Berlin, Germany, on September 5, 1791. His
name, at birth, was Jakob Liebmann Beer. When Meyer, a rich relative,
left him a legacy, he decided to change his name to Meyerbeer; some
years later upon initiating a career as composer of Italian operas he
Italianized his name. His music study took place with Clementi, Zelter,
Anselm Weber and Vogler, the last of whom encouraged him to write his
first opera, _Jephtha’s Vow_ (_Jephtha’s Geluebde_), a failure when
first performed in Munich in 1812. A second opera, performed in
Stuttgart, was also a failure; Meyerbeer now seriously entertained the
thought of abandoning composition altogether. The noted Viennese
composer and teacher, Antonio Salieri, however, convinced him what he
needed was more study. This took place in Italy where for several years
Meyerbeer assimilated Italian traditions of opera. His first endeavor in
this style was _Romilda e Costanza_, a success when introduced in Padua
in 1817. During the next few years Meyerbeer wrote several more operas,
some of them on commission, and became one of Italy’s most highly
regarded composers for the stage. In 1826, Meyerbeer settled in Paris
where association with composers like Cherubini and Halévy, made him
impatient with the kind of operas he had thus far created. In 1831, with
_Robert le Diable_, he entered upon a new artistic phase in which
Italian methods, procedures and traditions were discarded in favor of
the French. _Robert le Diable_, produced at the Opera on November 21,
1831 was a sensation. Meyerbeer continued writing operas in the French
style for the remainder of his life. These are the operas by which he is
most often represented in the world’s opera theaters: _Les Huguenots_
(1836), _Le Prophète_ (1849), and _L’Africaine_ (1865). Meyerbeer died
in Paris on May 2, 1864.
Meyerbeer was an exponent of drama in the grand style, his finest operas
being filled with big climactic scenes, elaborate stage effects, and
eye-filling visual displays. But he also had a pronounced dramatic gift,
one which evoked from Wagner the highest admiration; and a pronounced
expressiveness of lyricism.
_L’Africaine_ (_The African_) is Meyerbeer’s last opera, and many
regarded it as his best. He completed it in 1864 just before his death,
and its world première at the Paris Opera took place posthumously on
April 28, 1865. The text, by Eugène Scribe, is set in Lisbon and
Madagascar in the 15th century. The main action concerns the love of
Selika, an African queen, for the Portuguese explorer, Vasco da Gama; Da
Gama in turn is loved by Inez, daughter of Don Diego. Selika offers the
explorer a secret route to the land of which she is queen, Madagascar,
and with which Da Gama becomes enraptured. But when Inez appears, he
abandons Selika for her, and leaves the magic island. Heartbroken,
Selika kills herself by breathing the deadly fragrance of a manchineel
tree.
The opera’s most popular excerpt is Vasco da Gama’s rapturous tenor aria
from the fourth act in which he describes the beauty of Madagascar, “_O
Paradis_.” Another vocal favorite is the baritone ballad of Nelusko,
slave of Selika, “_Adamastor, roi des vagues profondes_”; as he steers
the ship bearing Selika and Vasco da Gama to Madagascar he sings of
Adamastor, monarch of the sea, who sends ships to their doom on
treacherous reefs.
The _Coronation March_ (_Marche du couronnement_)—music of pomp and
circumstance—comes from the opera _Le Prophète_, first performed at the
Paris Opéra on April 16, 1849. Eugène Scribe’s libretto is based on an
actual historical episode in 16th century Holland centered around the
Anabaptist uprising, with John of Leyden, leader of the Anabaptists, as
the principal character. In Act four, scene two, John is being crowned
king outside the Muenster Cathedral. As a magnificent royal procession
enters the Cathedral, the music of the _Coronation March_ matches in
splendor and grandeur the visual majesty of this scene. Another popular
musical excerpt for orchestra from this opera is Prelude to Act 3, a
colorful and rhythmic Quadrille that leads into the opening scene of
that act, providing the lively musical background for a ballet and
ice-carnival skating scene. Liszt made a technically brilliant
transcription for the piano of this Quadrille music.
_Les Huguenots_ (_The Huguenots_) was first performed at the Paris Opéra
on February 29, 1836, the year it was completed; the libretto was by
Eugène Scribe and Émile Deschamps. In 16th century Touraine and Paris,
Raoul, a Huguenot nobleman, has saved the life of Valentine, daughter of
the Catholic leader, St. Bris. She falls in love with Raoul, but the
latter repudiates her, believing her to be the mistress of Count de
Nevers. When he discovers he has been mistaken, Raoul risks his life to
see her. During this visit he overhears a Catholic plot to massacre the
Huguenots. After Raoul and Valentine get married, they are both murdered
in the massacre—Valentine by her own father.
The Overture to _Les Huguenots_ is built almost entirely from the melody
of the famous Lutheran chorale, _Ein’ feste Burg_, which in the opera
itself served as the musical symbol for militant Protestantism. The
outstanding individual excerpts from the opera include Raoul’s beautiful
romance from Act 1 describing the woman he has saved, “_Plus blanche que
la blanche hermine_”; the rhapsodic description in the second act of the
Touraine countryside by Marguerite de Valois, betrothed to Henry IV of
Navarre, “_O beau pays de la Touraine_”; and in the fourth act the
stirring “Benediction of the Swords,” (“_Gloire au grand Dieu vengeur_”)
with which the Catholics are blessed by three monks on the eve of their
holy war against the Huguenots.
The exciting _Torch Dance_, No. 1, in B-flat is not from one of
Meyerbeer’s operas. It was written in 1846 for the wedding of the King
of Bavaria, and originally was scored for brass band. It is now most
frequently heard in orchestral adaptations. Meyerbeer subsequently wrote
two other _Torch Dances_: the second in 1850 for the wedding of Princess
Charlotte of Prussia, and the third in 1853 for the wedding of Princess
Anne of Prussia.