# Why is Giacomo Meyerbeer such a weird mystery of sorts?



## Ulterior Motif (May 11, 2019)

Now as far as 'pop culture' opera and classical composers go, there are a fair few that are embedded in the psyche and their most famous works have become pop culture clichés - Beethoven's 'Fur Elise' and '5th', Mozart's '4th', Rossini's 'Barber of Seville', Wagner's 'Ride of the Valkyries'... but there's one composer that seems to have never built up that status - Giacomo Meyerbeer. I went through a cliché classical phase in my very early teens, but I'd never come across Meyerbeer. I discovered him merely by accident. That 'accident' is that my great-aunt sent me a family tree and it turns out we're distantly related to him - he was a second-cousin of my 5x-great-grandfather. Meyerbeer has been described as 'perhaps the most successful stage composer of the 19th century', so how come he's never been posthumously allowed to rub shoulders with his contemporaries? He was Jewish, but still, his basic disappearance can't ALL be attributed to antisemitic views. Plus, his overtures are surprisingly catchy.


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## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

Some of the issues are quite openly touched upon here:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giacomo_Meyerbeer


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