It is probable, however, that he reflected longer than people have
hitherto given him credit for, on the transformation which he allowed to
operate in his talent, for it was not until he had spent several years
in Italy, that is to say in 1818, that he appeared to the public of that
country for the first time. With his calm and meditative mind, with his
studious and persevering nature, we may suppose that he employed his
time in working silently, in solitude, to modify his style, to acquire
the assurance which he lacked, to give elegance and facility to the
forms of his melody, without compromising thereby the sentiment of a
rich and abundant harmony, the beauties of an original and vigorous
instrumentation. It was not, then, until after this complete remodelling
of his early education, this training of his faculties, that he decided
to brave the stage anew, and to solicit the approbation of a public to
whom he was quite unknown. If this Italian career of Meyerbeer, of which
I am about to give a brief review, offers only a secondary interest from
the standpoint of the value of his works, it offers a very great one as
a transitional stage, covering as it does the period of the development
of his genius, and the evolution by which he was preparing himself for
the great masterpieces with which he was to endow the French lyric stage,
those masterpieces which were to seal his glory and render his fame
universal.
[Illustration: CARICATURE OF MEYERBEER.