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Giacomo Meyerbeer remains an enigma. Until the First World War he was one of the most famous of all composers. This Reader hopes to reflect something of the immense fame, prestige and love in which this composer was once held, the voices of doubt and dismissal that began to be heard even in his lifetime, and the enduring witness to his fame and worth evinced by those who have continued to believe in him in the face of the encroaching collective disparagement. Since the centenary of his death in 1964, there has been growing rediscovery of his life and re-evaluation of his art. While the revival of his work is not universal, at least a slow but steady process of recovery and exploration has begun.The forty contributions chosen for this Reader follow a chronological course, from the days of Meyerbeer's international acclaim after the premieres of his first two French operas, through the critical discussion of his art that began to take place during the mid-years of the nineteenth century, to the growing hostility induced by the advent of Wagner and his ideological following.The line of enquiry then leads into the dark days after the First World War when critical hostility was at its peak, on to the more reflective mood emerging during the 1950s, to the period of reassessment heralded by the centenary of his death in 1964. Finally, it surveys the critical rediscovery that was initiated by the bicentenary of his birth in 1991, a process that is still developing apace.The Reader also presents a series of portraits of the composer, and some images from his operas, an icongraphical commentary running parallel to the texts. ... Read more

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Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791-1864) was a great musical dramatist in his own right. The fame of his operas rests on his radical treatment of form, his development of scenic complexes and greater plasticity of structure and melody, his dynamic use of the orchestra, and close attention to all aspects of presentation and production, all of which set new standards in Romantic opera and dramaturgy.This book carries forward the process of rediscovery and reassessment of Meyerbeer's art - including not just his famous French operas, but also his German and Italian ones - placing them in the context of his entire dramatic oeuvre, including his ballets, oratorios, cantatas and incidental music. From Meyerbeer's first stage presentation in 1810 to his great posthumous accolade in 1865, some twenty-four works mark the unfolding of this life lived for dramatic music. The reputation of the famous four grand operas may well live on in the public consciousness, but the other works remain largely unknown. This book provides an approachable introduction to them.The works have been divided into their generic types for quick reference and helpful association and placed within the context of the composer's life and artistic development.Each section unfolds a brief history of the work's origins, an account of the plot, a critical survey of some of its musical characteristics, and a record of its performance history. Robert Letellier examines each work from a dramaturgical view point, including the essential - often challenging - philosophical and historical elements in the scenarios, and how these concepts were translated musically onto the stage. A series of portraits and stage iconography aid in bringing the works to life. ... Read more

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Balanced Studies Meyerbeer's Operas
Meyerbeer Studies: A Series Of Lectures, Essays, And Articles On The Life And Work Of Giacomo Meyerbeer by Robert Ignatius Letellier (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press) This collection of essays investigates the life and the work of Giacomo Meyerbeer, the most famous exponent of French grand opera. They are both introductory and exploratory, biographical, analytical, and comparative studies in the achievement of this great figure of musical history.
In 1936 Meyerbeer's opera Les Huguenots achieved its 1,120th performance at the Paris Opera. This extraordinary record is an indication of the vast fame and influence of its composer who was once a household name, like Verdi or Puccini. Now he is unknown to the ordinary opera lover. These essays represent something of an odyssey to seek out and know the shadowy figure behind so much divided opinion and long neglect. They represent attempts, at various stages over thirty years, to find Meyerbeer and enter the world of his remarkable operatic creations that once so characterized the musical life of European civilization.
The first chapter is a basic introduction to Meyerbeer's career and some of the characteristics of his musical language. His great dramatic power, melodic richness, and famed orchestral virtuosity are all considered, as represented in his most famous opera, Les Huguenots. Other essays look at aspects of his life, especially in the light of his personal papers that have been opened up to the world since the early 1960s.
The second set of studies endeavors to understand Meyerbeer's major operas in some kind of intellectual framework, and in relation to one another. Meyerbeer's six French operas helped to define the classicgenres of grand opera and opera comique. A representative of each of these types is explored, analyzing origins, literary elements, and musical style. The com¬poser's first opera comique, L'Etoile du Nord (1854), is a work of surprising com¬plexity and invention that pays tribute to a long tradition of beloved operatic conventions in a most original way. L'Africaine (1865) was the swansong of his career and a valediction to the classic form that had dom¬inated the serious lyric stage in Paris since the late seventeenth century.
The third set of essays combines the biographical and analytical approaches to investigate Meyerbeer as man and musician in relation to his contemporaries. The heady world of nineteenth-century Paris is explored, with Halevy and Auber pre-eminent among Meyerbeer's colleagues. Meyerbeer's reactions to them personally and professionally provide fresh perspectives on the history of French opera in the mid-nineteenth century.
Meyerbeer is also examined in relation to Bellini, the famous composer of long, beautiful melodies. Bellini's essentially lyrical gifts are thought of as antithetical to Meyerbeer's more passionate dramaturgy, yet consideration of Meyerbeer's use of melody, and its extension in dramatic purposefulness, reveals points of their close affinity.
The longest and final contribution is devoted to Meyerbeer's relations with Berlioz, his brilliant and versatile contem¬porary on the Parisian scene. The two conducted a surprisingly close but troubled friendship over thirty-five years, and this complex relationship is explored in their writings about each other.
... Read more

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This is a collection of letters by Meyerbeer, the operatic composer who died in 1864. Critics have recently re-evaluated his work, recognizing his musical craftmanship, his dramatic sense and his influence on later operatic composers. His operas - "Il Crociato", "Robert le diable", "Les Huguenots", "Le Prophete" and "L'etoile du nord" - were extremely successful in Paris at the time of his death. However, the fashionable anti-semitism of the late 19th century meant that his reputation faded quickly. Heinz and Gudrun Becker, the editors of Meyerbeer's "Letters and Diaries", have selected representative letters from all periods of his life to provide a well balanced picture of the composer's personality and place in history. ... Read more

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An eye opener and very informative.
It is not often that one comes across a book on Giacomo Meyerbeer in English..even though this work is a translation from the German. The author follows a chronological portrait of the composer interspersing background information as it relates to the letters. I found that these comments were too few in number and left more questions unanswered, but recognize that this book is a good beginning and look forward to a sequel. ... Read more

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This volume brings together a collection of the orchestral works of the composer Giacomo Meyerbeer. He is remembered as one of the great figures of 19th-century opera a master of brilliant vocalism, impassioned drama and vivid orchestral power and colour. His operas are noted for their precise construction and urgent propulsion, and never linger for long in music for its own sake. Nevertheless, the orchestral passages are integral to the dramatic logic: brief thematically pertinent preludes and precise introductions to the individual acts, always providing a sense of colour and purpose. The operas are also famous for their ballets as an integral aspect of the dramaturgy of the grand French style, but even here the music is kept within strict temporal control. Some of these dance sequences (like the Ballet of the Nuns in Robert le Diable and the Skaters Ballet in Le Prophète became very famous in themselves: the former was of seminal influence on the development of the Romantic Ballet, both in musical and conceptual terms; the latter is known universally as the ballet of winter joy, Les Patineurs). Other orchestral episodes from the operas also enjoyed great independent popularity like the resplendent Coronation March in Le Prophète and the exotic Marche Indienne in L Africaine. The former continues to be Meyerbeer s most widely known composition. All these works have been gathered together in this volume to constitute orchestral suites from the French operas both grand and the smaller opéras comiques. The two latter works L Étoile du Nord and Dinorah each has an extended overture. Meyerbeer s most substantial orchestral work, however, is the incidental music he wrote for his brother, Michael Beer s tragedy Struensee (1846). The overture is Meyerbeer s crowing achievement in orchestral writing, and the rest of the incidental music is enthralling in its drama, passion and pathos. The composer was also asked to write instrumental music for other public occasions, most especially for the weddings of the Prussian Royal Family. He provided four stirring Fackeltänze for the torchlight procession held at the Hohenzollern nuptial celebrations, superb works in processional polonaise style, full of grandezza, dramatic gesture and affecting lyricism. In 1861 Meyerbeer was asked to compose the music for the royal procession of King Wilhelm I of Prussia at the ancient capital of Königsberg. The result was another Coronation March, this one of more formal and stately character, that reaches its climax most appropriately in the Prussian national anthem 'Ich bin ein Preusser'. In 1862 Meyerbeer was commissioned to write music for the opening of the London Exhibition in the Crystal Palace. His Overture in March Style is in the form of a Baroque suite, and provides a series of four variants on the march genre, culminating in a fantasia on 'Rule Britannia'. This grandiose festive piece is full variety, surprises and subtle orchestral colours. Like all this composer s work, this fine composition is waiting to be rediscovered. ... Read more

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A Rare Treasure Unfolds in Meyerbeer's Diaries
Robert Letellier has produced a masterpiece in this Part I of a monumental work.Meticulously footnoted in every detail, the life of Meyerbeer (1791-1864) is told from the composer's perspective for the very firsttime. As this was a period in history of the development of anindustrialized Europe, and Meyerbeer was a traveller, the diaries containkeen observations of sights, travel conditions and technological changes. For example, an illuminating section describes with wonder thetechnological marvel of fire hydrants, which Meyerbeer encountered for thefist time.

From the standpoint of musical history, the publication ofthis book stands as a long overdue English language refutation (until now,virtually all modern scholarly work on the subject has been in German) ofthe commonly held critiques of Meyerbeer, and puts forth a strong case forthe revival of his music and opera today.In a foreword by Heinz Becker,the German musicologist who, working virtually alone since 1952, began theproject of restoring Meyerbeer to his rightful place in history as theoriginator of French Grand Opera, the importance and successes of thecomposer are reviewed in some detail.

The diaries contain innumerablereferences to Meyerbeer's family life, the anti-semitism he encountered,the famous personalities he encountered, and the plays, operas and concertshe attended.

Robert Letellier is the ideal editor for this project.Hisfluid translation of sometimes cryptic German text makes this book into aquite easy read.We look forward to Part 2 with great interest. ... Read more

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Volume 8 closes this edition of Meyerbeer's correspondence, personal journals and pocket diaries and provides the reader with detailed information about public music life in Berlin, London and Paris during the time from 1860 to 1864. Especially interesting are the documents on his work as the Prussian general music director under Wilhelm I and his posthumously premiered opera L'Africaine. ... Read more

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Giacomo Meyerbeer, one of the most important and influential opera composers of the 19th century, enjoyed a fame during his lifetime unrivalled by any of his contemporaries.His four French grand operaswere in the standard repertory of every major opera house of the world between about 1835 and 1910.But his stage works went into an eclipse after World War I, and from then until about ten years ago were performed only occasionally.Now a rediscovery and reevaluation of his music dramas seems to be under way.More performances of his operas have taken place since 1993 than occurred during the previous twenty years.And this presents a problem for anyone who wants to study the texts of his operas.Libretti of his early stage works are held by very few libraries in the world and are almost impossible to find, and libretti of his more famous later operas, when found, are invariably heavily cut and reflect the performance practices of a hundred years ago.This five volume set represents the first time that all of the composer s texts have been made available in one collection.Over half of the libretti have not appeared in print in any language for more than 150 years, and one libretto has never been in print before; all of the libretti are offered in the most complete versions ever made available, many with supplementary material appearing in adenda; each libretto is accompanied by a modern English translation; and the entire work is prefaced by an introduction written by renowned Meyerbeer authority Robert Letellier.This is the most comprehensive and up-to-date edition of Meyerbeer s operas available. Translations and originals are placed on facing pages so that ease of use is maximised. ... Read more

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Nineteenth-century Paris attracted foreign musicians like a magnet. The city boasted a range of theatres and of genres represented there, a wealth of libretti and source material for them, vocal, orchestral and choral resources, to say nothing of the set designs, scenery and costumes. All this contributed to an artistic environment that had musicians from Italian- and German-speaking states beating a path to the doors of the Academie Royale de Musique, Opera-Comique, Theatre Italien, Theatre Royal de l'Odeon and Theatre de la Renaissance. This book both tracks specific aspects of this culture, and examines stage music in Paris through the lens of one of its most important figures: Giacomo Meyerbeer. The early part of the book, which is organised chronologically, examines the institutional background to music drama in Paris in the nineteenth century, and introduces two of Meyerbeer's Italian operas that were of importance for his career in Paris.Meyerbeer's acculturation to Parisian theatrical mores is then examined, especially his moves from the Odeon and Opera-Comique to the opera house where he eventually made his greatest impact - the Academie Royale de Musique; the shift from Opera-Comique is then counterpointed by an examination of how an indigenous Parisian composer, Fromental Halevy, made exactly the same leap at more or less the same time. The book continues with the fates of other composers in Paris: Weber, Donizetti, Bellini and Wagner, but concludes with the final Parisian successes that Meyerbeer lived to see - his two operas comiques. ... Read more

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The fame of Giacomo Meyerbeer is associated principally with the operatic stage, but he wrote for the voice extensively in other genres as well, including non-operatic stage works, occasional public works, sacred music, choral music and songs, This volume collates and presents, in the original and in English translation, as many of these texts as have been published, or whose manuscripts have proved accessible to the editors.There are six parts devoted to the various genres . Part 1looks at the non-operatic stage works, the dramatic cantata he wrote at the beginning of his Italian period Gli Amori di Teolinda (1817), the masque written for Prussian court festivities Das Hoffest zu Ferrara (1842), and songs included in plays.Part 2 is devoted to the occasional works Meyerbeer was asked to write throughout his life, twelve cantatasborn out of commissions to celebrate dynastic events and to praise the deeds offamous men. Their festive purposes mark anniversaries of illustrious figures (like Guttenberg, Frederick the Great, Schiller, Rauch), commemorate events in national life like the Wars of Liberation recalled in the choral soliloquy, theBayerische Schützen Marsch (1831, to words by King Ludwig I of Bavaria), orthe visit of Queen Victoria to the Rhine in 1845, or the twenty-fifth wedding anniversary of the King and Queen of Prussia in 1854. Linked to these are thepart songs for male chorus given in Part 4, a ubiquitous German choral tradition; most of them were written for the Friends of the Berlin Singakademie, and used the themes so typical of communal merrymaking and affirmation unity, friendship, patriotism, homeland, hunting: Part 3 surveys the texts forsacred music,from the early oratorio Gott und die Natur (1811) to the canticle Ineffable splendeur de la gloire eternelle drawn from Thomas à Kempis (1862-3). The young composer s skills and serious endeavours were demonstrated by the song cycle using seven religious odes byKlopstock (Sieben Geistliche Gesänge, 1812, revised 1841) anearly involvement with religious texts that continued intermittently throughout his life, and manifested itself preeminently in his eight-part setting of Psalm 91 (1853) and his beautiful choral version of the Our Father (1857).Meyerbeer also wrote songs consistently, from his six Italian ariettas of 1810 to a canon for two voices completed in December 1862. These Lieder, mélodies and canzonette reflected the circumstances of his career, the various cultural milieux he moved in. They also helped to keep his name in the public eye in the wake of his great operatic successes, gaining popular currency bypublication in musical journals. Part 5 provides the words of 54 of the 83 songs that are listed in his diaries. These texts aregiven a visual dimension by some 36 illustrations, mostly the beautifully engraved titles pages of many of the published works. ... Read more

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Meyerbeer's third Italian opera, 'Emma di Resburgo' ('Emma of Roxburgh') was premiered at the Teatro San Benedetto in Venice on 26 June, 1819 only three months after 'Semiramide' had appeared at Turin, and scored a success that far surpassed that of both of its predecessors. It was indeed the work that established Meyerbeer's reputation in Italy, and extended it even beyond the Alps into Germany.It was also the opera that brought him into close contact with Rossini, the most important figure of the second decade of the century, whose work was a major influence on all his contemporaries, Meyerbeer included. Rossini's 'Eduardo e Cristina' was given on 24 April and Emma on 26 June. Both operas triumphed, and the two composers became very good friends, a relationship that was to continue later in Paris. Meyerbeer's opera went on to be staged in Venice, Milan, Genoa, Florence and Padua. Translated into German, it was given in Vienna, Dresden, Frankfurt, Berlin and Stuttgart, and even reached Warsaw in 1821.The story of "Emma di Resburgo" concerns dynastic rivalry in Lowland Scotland at the time of the Norman conquest; its libretto was the third written for Meyerbeer by Gaetano Rossi. The text covers the same material as that of one of Mehul's operas Helena (1803). Mayr had also set this plot as Elena as recently as 1814, as an opera-semiseria, re-adapted for La Scala in the autumn of 1816, where Meyerbeer may well have heard it. The action of Emma, transferred from Provence to Scotland, takes place in the Castle of Tura and in Glasgow, and predates by three months Rossini's Walter Scott opera, La donna del lago (Naples, San Carlo, 24 September, 1819), which is set in the Scottish Highlands.With its focus on a wild and violent Scotland, and with its themes of kidnap and usurpation, disguise and impersonation, lost relationships and restored fortunes, condemnation and rescue, Emma makes its own contribution to Italian Romantic opera. Meyerbeer's fluent and beautiful appropriation of the Rossinian idiom is given a further dimension by the composer's technical mastery and richness of invention, particularly evident in relation to the treatment of the Romantic subject. The new musical colours, appearing here even before similar developments in Rossini's La donna del lago, are not used in the depiction of nature, but in the realistic situational transposition of the drama.This is particularly forward-looking in the big tableaux: the Chorus of Judges, rightly admired in its day, through-composed as an integral part of the action, and the graduated act 1 finale, dramatic in its contrasts. The sombre 'Death March' in the act 2 finale, with its writing for the bassoons, looks forward to Meyerbeer's French operas. The lieto fine, or happy ending of the opera, looking back to the eighteenth century, is still infused with the old ideals of the Enlightenment, typified in the clemency shown in the end by the tyrant. However, Meyerbeer had learned to infuse this Utopian spirit, so characteristic of a past epoch, with the vibrant new sensibility so characteristic of Romanticism."Emma di Resburgo" marked a milestone in Meyerbeer's career and brought him the greatest honour any composer could aspire to in Italy - a commission from La Scala Milan that would result in his next work, 'Margherita d'Anjou' (1820). ... Read more