Meyerbeer, GIACOMO, operatic composer, was born at Berlin, September 5, 1791. The son of Herz Beer, a wealthy Jewish banker, his name was originally Jakob Beer; the name Meyer was afterwards adopted from a benefactor, and the whole consolidated and Italianised. His musical genius was first shown on the pianoforte; at the age of seven he played in public Mozart's D minor concerto. He was received, when fifteen, into the house of the celebrated musician, the Abbé Vogler, at Darmstadt; with his fellow-pupil Weber he was on terms of the most intimate and lasting friendship. His earlier works, produced at Munich and Vienna, were unsuccessful, but in the latter city he obtained fame as a pianist, which might have stood against that of any rival had he chosen to rely on this talent. His ambition, however, was to succeed as a composer; and on the advice of Salieri he proceeded to study vocal composition in Italy. There Rossini's music had just taken the public by storm; and Meyerbeer, with his remarkable adaptability, after three years was able to produce operas in the new style, which at once gained a cordial reception; the last of these, Il Crociato, brought out at Venice in 1824, was received with acclamation, and the composer was presented on the stage with a laurel crown. From 1824 to 1831 he lived mostly in Berlin, married, and had two children, whose loss in infancy he keenly felt. He also applied himself, with the unremitting industry he evinced from boyhood, to a minute and comprehensive study of French opera. The result of this was seen in the production at Paris in 1831 of Robert le Diable (libretto by Scribe), in which a totally new style was evident. It had unparalleled success over all Europe, and made the fortune of the Paris opera—even Rossini was thrown rather into the shade. It was followed in 1836 by the Huguenots, which, with the assistance of a magnificent cast, almost eclipsed its predecessor. He was soon after appointed by the king of Prussia as his Kapellmeister at Berlin. Here he wrote the opera Ein Feldlager in Schlesien, the success of which was signalled by the first appearance of Jenny Lind. After long preparation, Le Prophète appeared at Paris in 1849, also with success, though it was not altogether to the mind of even friendly critics. The composer now ventured into a fresh field, the Opéra Comique; L'Étoile du Nord, given in 1854, carried the day in spite of the prognostications of French critics, and was succeeded in 1859 by Le Pardon de Ploumerval, known in England as Dinorah. He was subsequently occupied with a musical drama, La Jeunesse de Goethe, the setting of which M. Blaze de Bury, the author of the work, says he saw complete, but which has not hitherto come to light. In 1861 he set to work with his usual anxiety and fastidiousness on the production of L'Africaine, which had been in hand since 1838. But his delicate health gave way before his ceaseless labours, and he died at Paris, May 2, 1864. The opera had a triumphant reception a year later.
Scarcely any composer has been so variously estimated as Meyerbeer. The magnificent praise of Fétis and Blaze de Bury is counterbalanced by the emphatic condemnation of Schumann and the savage and ungrateful attacks of Wagner. There seems to be truth in the main charge of the latter, that Meyerbeer, inspired by no deeply rooted artistic principle, made everything subsidiary to theatrical effect. His successive adoption of widely-different styles bears this out; and Heine, an enthusiastic admirer, mentioning his admitted mastery of instrumentation, slyly extends it to his never-resting efforts to make everything and everybody concerned in his operas instrumental towards his success. But even opponents concede the power and beauty of such a piece as the famous duet in the fourth act of the Huguenots. Endowed with a considerable native talent, he had by unceasing labour mastered the effects of all the different schools, and was able to utilise his knowledge to brilliant purpose. Written ad captandum, his grand operas, unique rather than original, have accurately hit the taste of the public, and to this day these splendid melodramatic spectacular works are the pièces de résistance of the Paris Opéra. See Bennett's biography in Novello's series; or Fétis, Biographie Universelle des Musiciens.