# Meyerbeer



## HumphreyAppleby (Apr 11, 2013)

Giacomo Meyerbeer, despite, or perhaps because of, being the most popular opera composer of the 19th century (by quite a ways, too), has a reputation that varies from a great opera composer to a charlatan and hack whom mud looks down at. A lot of the vitriol was started by Wagner (who, of course, was influenced by Meyerbeer, and even supported artistically and financially by him), who needed a paradigm, preferably a Jewish one (hey, it's true), to rail against. Ever since, critics have been nuts about Wagner and hostile to Meyerbeer. But is he really as bad as all that?

I'm no expert on Meyerbeer's operas, and, from what I've heard, I'm not about to declare them the greatest works of all time. But they're good, interesting, often thrilling opera. They certainly aren't the brainless wastes that they're sometimes portrayed as. They deserve to be performed more often (though I readily admit that the sheer difficulty of the music makes it almost impossible to find good enough singers- but doesn't Wagner also face this problem?).

Here's a lovely love duet from _Les Huguenots_, the most performed opera of the 19th century, featuring an outrageous live performance by Nicolai Gedda.


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

I think the trouble with Meyerbeer is that that often his operas are too long for his inspiration. It didn't matter in his time, because most of his audience wouldn't be there for the whole show, and the lights would still have been on, and people didn't pay too much attention. 

Nowadays you need some inventive staging to set them off. Which is why I enjoyed the recent production of Robert le Diable staged by Laurent Pelly, because I didn't have time to get bored (the zombie nuns helped) but not a very static DVD of Il Crociato in Egitto when I was absolutely desperate for it to end.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

"There is nothing in Meyerbeer; he hasn't the courage to strike at the right time." (Beethoven to Tomaschek, October 1814. Meyerbeer had played the big drum at the 1813 performance of "Wellington's Victory".)


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## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

I like a lot Meyerbeer's operas. Well, some of them.

_Robert le Diable_ is as astounding piece, as well as _Les Huguenots_. His Italian operas are quite entertaining,


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Schumann puts on his Wagner anti-Semitic hat to attack _Les Huguenots_: "Time and time again we had to turn away in disgust...One may search in vain for a sustained pure thought, a truly Christian sentiment...It is all contrived, all make believe and hypocrisy!...This shrewdest of composers rubs his hands with glee."


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

The thing is, you have to get past all that anti-semitic %$#%$ and go and listen for yourself with an open mind.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

I have to say my taste had me finding the Meyerbeer just about as un-listenable / non-interesting as I find Wagner, so perhaps they are equals.



KenOC said:


> Schumann puts on his Wagner anti-Semitic hat to attack on _Les Huguenots_: "Time and time again we had to turn away in disgust...One may search in vain for a sustained pure thought, a truly Christian sentiment...It is all contrived, all make believe and hypocrisy!...This shrewdest of composers rubs his hands with glee."


I wouldn't be surprised if therein sits Schumann's only and ever comment about anything "Christian" altogether -- such is the corruption of an idea in fashion that he readily hopped on that bandwagon  This, I think, is what was generally "in the air" which makes Wagner far less exceptional in his antisemitism than many would like to make out. (...though Wagner was exceptionally loud about it, and loud about it in print -- uh, as he was about all his music.) I.e. a sustained social atmosphere which keeps the idea afloat and makes people sycophantically behave -- afraid to be found in disagreement, and monkey see; monkey do like -- as hypocrites.


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## Bellinilover (Jul 24, 2013)

I've never heard a complete opera by Meyerbeer and know only that "O beau pays" aria from LES HUGENOTS.

But I've always heard that the main reasons his operas are not performed much nowadays are the expense (because they are truly "grand operas" and can't be done well on tight budgets) and the vocal difficulty. I don't know that people today generally believe that Meyerbeer was actually a bad composer. Probably that was true before the "bel canto revival" of the 1950's onward, but I don't get the sense that it's true today.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

One thing I learned in reading about Meyerbeer in Wiki: He was quite rich (inherited) and sometimes "bought" stage time for his operas with cash payments. Berlioz: "I can't forget that Meyerbeer was only able to persuade [the Opéra] to put on Robert le diable ... by paying the administration sixty thousand francs of his own money."

Financially struggling composers like Berlioz and Wagner were infuriated and probably envious. I remember a similar outrage here a while ago when Gordon Getty (who is far richer than Meyerbeer ever dreamed of) made a big cash donation to a British opera company, and they immediately scheduled one of his operas -- a coincidence, they claimed.


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

I was greatly interested in Meyerbeer once but then it turned out that JDF dropped out.

Now, really, I don't have my mind made up about him (Meyerbeer) yet, but here is charming little aria in very French manner that is THE number which comes to my mind whenever I hear this composer's name:






It's sort of classic mad scene, hence lots of frenzy coloratura.


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## HumphreyAppleby (Apr 11, 2013)

Bellinilover said:


> But I've always heard that the main reasons his operas are not performed much nowadays are the expense (because they are truly "grand operas" and can't be done well on tight budgets) and the vocal difficulty. I don't know that people today generally believe that Meyerbeer was actually a bad composer. Probably that was true before the "bel canto revival" of the 1950's onward, but I don't get the sense that it's true today.


The expense and the vocal difficulty are certainly factors. And I'm not really super knowledgeable about the current academic view of him, but from my relatively narrow readings of reviews, articles, and books he seems to get a bad rap.


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## Revenant (Aug 27, 2013)

I cannot altogether dislike a composer whose name has the word 'beer' in it, just on principle. I found his work in total ponderous and difficult to navigate, but studded with true gems from Huguenots, Rober Le Diable, Dinorah and, of course, even the much maligned L'Africaine.


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

Bellinilover said:


> I've never heard a complete opera by Meyerbeer and know only that "O beau pays" aria from LES HUGENOTS.
> 
> But I've always heard that the main reasons his operas are not performed much nowadays are the expense (because they are truly "grand operas" and can't be done well on tight budgets) and the vocal difficulty. I don't know that people today generally believe that Meyerbeer was actually a bad composer. Probably that was true before the "bel canto revival" of the 1950's onward, but I don't get the sense that it's true today.


You are right but there is nothing bel canto about Meyerbeer.


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## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

Meyerbeer is best remembered, and rightly so, by his French Grand Operas. But during his stay in Italy, he was recognized as the main adversary of Rossini for the heart of the Italian fans. _

Il Crociatto in Egitto_ is a very nice opera, with some great numbers. "Popoli dell' Egitto" is perhaps the most famous aria from the opera (Juan Diego Flórez is singing it now in his latest recitals): a very difficult, but brilliant number. There are some good renditions available in youtube, but perhaps the more moving is this one from an aging Alfredo Kraus, released in his recording for Phillips a few years before his death, 'The Incomparable Alfredo Kraus":


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## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

Meyerbeer is Rheingold , said Wagner .


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## Revenant (Aug 27, 2013)

superhorn said:


> Meyerbeer is Rheingold , said Wagner .


Meyerbeer is Rienzi. Rossini once said that he found out that, in their old age, Meyerbeer would pass by Rossini's home and ask one of the servants if the master was in good health. He did it so often that Rossini concluded that Meyerbeer was waiting for his main rival to die so he could remain the one undisputedly preeminent opera composer left. As it turned out, M predeceased R.


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

Revenant said:


> Meyerbeer is Rienzi.


Traces of the style of Grand Opera remain in Wagner's works up through at least _Fliegende Hollander_, and I'm sure he never fully escaped Meyerbeer's influence.


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## Romantiker (Feb 23, 2014)

Meyerbeer's operas were casualties of the Nazi holocaust. His works were popular in Germany, France, Italy, and elsewhere until the Nazis banned all performances in Germany. That had an impact later in eastern Europe, France, and Italy. After the war, exponents of modernism had no interest in reviving Meyerbeer. One of Joan Sutherland's greatest contributions to opera was making people interested in Meyerbeer again. I think _Le profete_ is a masterpiece that deserve contemporary attention. Its portrayal of fanaticism and religious cynicism has great contemporary relevance in the USA. Meyerbeer wrote extraordinary music of for John of Leyden that underscores the sometimes fine line between mysticism and insanity.


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

Romantiker said:


> Meyerbeer's operas were casualties of the Nazi holocaust. His works were popular in Germany, France, Italy, and elsewhere until the Nazis banned all performances in Germany. That had an impact later in eastern Europe, France, and Italy. *After the war, exponents of modernism had no interest in reviving Meyerbeer.* One of Joan Sutherland's greatest contributions to opera was making people interested in Meyerbeer again. I think _Le profete_ is a masterpiece that deserve contemporary attention. Its portrayal of fanaticism and religious cynicism has great contemporary relevance in the USA. Meyerbeer wrote extraordinary music of for John of Leyden that underscores the sometimes fine line between mysticism and insanity.


Nor did anybody else. The Bel Canto revival and the Baroque revival have come and stayed, but Grand Opera hasn't, despite the occasional production. Why?


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

The point is that great music will out. The simple reason that Meyerbeer is 'neglected' is the same reason that most second raters are neglected! People don't want to hear it!


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## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

I want to hear more about the goat in Dinorah, please!


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## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

DavidA said:


> The point is that great music will out. The simple reason that Meyerbeer is 'neglected' is the same reason that most second raters are neglected! People don't want to hear it!


I know but I love _Robert le diable_ & really enjoyed the new Pelly production which I saw at ROH.


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## msegers (Oct 17, 2008)

In just the past couple of years, I've discovered Meyerbeer, and for me, he is full of treasures and surprises. In fact, the DVD of _Dinorah_ has become my favorite opera DVD. There is so much more to that opera than the "Shadow Song," and, yes, there are goats (before its NYC premiere in 1862, word got out that there would be a live goat on the stage; the DVD has live dogs), as well as an amazing overture. Unfortunately, this is the only clip from the DVD that I can find, the "Shadow Song," in which the soprano almost sings a duet with herself (her shadow) - 




I approach his works almost like a circus, with many rings, much going on, lovely music, and, ultimately, sheer fun, especially the recent DVD of _Robert le Diable_. (Zombie nuns, anyone?) We seem to be coming to grips with _L'Africaine_ (The African Woman, although there are no Africans in it), which was left unfinished at Meyerbeer's death.


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