Meyerbeer

“ The beautiful introduction to the first act, the scene of the three anabaptists, the marvellous ballet of skaters, the arioso of Fidès in prison, a truly sublime and pathetic page, finally the grand tableau of the cathedral, are so many superb and living proofs of Meyerbeer's powerful and versatile genius. The public grew to admire the beauties of this bold and dignified work; as to the artists, there are many who unhesitatingly place the Prophète above all that he has written for the stage; for myself, I divide my highest admiration between le Prophète and les Huguenots. ”

“ At the sight of that beautiful set of the cloister of Sainte-Rosalie, where the nuns rise from their tombs, at the effect produced by the weird procession, Meyerbeer came up to Véron.
"My dear director," he said, "I perceive well enough that you do not depend upon the opera itself; you are, in fact, running after a spectacular success." ”

“ If we fail to recognize Meyerbeer’s genius, we are not only unjust but also ungrateful. In every sense, in his conception of opera, in his treatment of orchestration, in his handling of choruses, even in stage setting, he gave us new principles by which our modern works have profited to a large extent. ”

“ Théophile Gautier was no musician, but he had a fine taste in music and he judged Meyerbeer as follows:
“In addition to eminent musical talents, Meyerbeer had a highly developed instinct for the stage. He goes to the heart of a situation, follows closely the meanings of the words, and observes both the historical and local color of his subject.... Few composers have understood opera so well.” ”

“ He had tried without success in the German school as well as in the Italian. He gave himself up to the mercantile style, and his career was brilliant. Meanwhile, Meyerbeer employed Scribe to write his texts, and these two minds understood each other wonderfully. The one furnished piquant scenes, without regard to the exigencies of reason and morals, and threw in a profusion of seductions for all the passions. He set to work all the wonders of decoration. ”

“ While he was yet working on the "Africaine", the hand of death interposed, and, at the cold touch, the pen was laid aside, the music-paper dropped unheeded on the floor, the piano was silent, and the composer left forever the scene of his labors and his triumphs. Few men might, at the last hour, be more justified in pleading, with earnest anxiety,—"Not now!—not now!"
Biographers already differ about the date of Meyerbeer's birth, some asserting that it took place in 1791, while the majority agree that the day was September 5, 1794. ”

“ For several years after this he remained with Vogler, studying, working, composing, and enjoying.
Indeed, the biographer who shall give us a permanent "Life of Meyerbeer" must recur to the composer's sojourn in Darmstadt as the most romantic phase of his existence,—when, away from the pleasures and temptations of a great capital, free from the demands of society, with nothing to distract his mind from Art, he consecrated his young life to her service. His few associates of his own age were devoted to the same cause, and all were certainly inspired by a mutual emulation. ”

“ Meyerbeer was born at Berlin, September 5, 1794, and was a musical prodigy from his earliest years. When only four years old he would repeat on the piano the airs he heard from the hand-organs, composing his own accompaniment. At five he took lessons of Lanska, a pupil of Clementi, and at six he made his appearance at a concert. Three years afterward the critics spoke of him as one of the best pianists in Berlin. He studied successively under the greatest masters of the time, Clemcnti, Bernhard Anselm Weber, and Abbé Vogler. ”

“ Here Meyerbeer had for companion Karl Maria von Weber, and between the two sprang up a lasting friendship. Each morning after early mass, when the young men took it in turns to preside at the organ, they assembled for a lesson in counterpoint from the Abbé. Themes were distributed, and a fugue or sacred cantata had to be written every day. In the evening the work was examined, when each man had to defend his own composition against the critical attacks of Vogler and the rest. ”

“ The experiment vindicated Meyerbeer's judgment, and Jenny Lind could then and there have signed a contract with the manager, whom Meyerbeer had taken care to have present, had it not been for the spiteful opposition of a distinguished prima donna, who had an undue influence over the managerial mind.
The young singer returned to Stockholm a new being, assured of her powers, self-centered in her ambition, and with a right to expect a successful career for herself. ”

“ He is no good. He has not pluck enough to keep time.' Pluck was a quality which Meyerbeer never possessed, even at the tune of his greatest successes. A fortnight later Tomaschek repeated the visit, and describes it in even greater detail ('Libussa' 1847) . Meyerbeer's 'Two Caliphs' was then being performed, and on Tomaschek saying that it began with a Hallelujah and ended with a Requiem, Beethoven remarked, 'Yes, it is all up with his playing.' And again, 'He knows nothing of instrumental music; singing he does understand, and that he should stick to. ”

“ Jenny Lind now went to Berlin, in August 1844, and for a time studied German. In September she returned to Stockholm, and took part in the fêtes at the crowning of King Oscar; but returned to Berlin in October, and obtained an engagement at the Opera through the influence of Meyerbeer, who had written for her the principal rôle in his 'Feldlager in Schlesien,' afterwards remodelled as 'L'Etoile du Nord.' She appeared first, December 15, as Norma, and was welcomed with enthusiasm; and afterwards played, with equal success, her part in Meyerbeer's new opera. ”

“ The second, entitled 'Scholar's Fugue,' contained Meyerbeer's unlucky exereise, dissected and criticised, bar by bar, and pronounced bad. The third, headed 'Master's Fugue,' consisted of a fugue by Vogler, on Meyerbeer's subject, analysed like the preceding one, to show that it was good. [2]
Weber was astonished and distressed, but Meyerbeer set to work and wrote another fugue, in eight parts, in accordance with his new lights. This, with a modest letter, he sent to Vogler. The answer soon came. 'Young man! Art opens to you a glorious future! ”

“ But there was another reason for his remaining in Paris, and that was his desire to hear 'The Huguenots,' and ascertain how far Meyerbeer's star was likely to eclipse his own. It is impossible to believe that a mere money question could have detained him so long at a time when almost every day must have brought fresh annoyances. After reducing 'Guillaume Tell' from five acts to three, they carried their love of compression so far as to give only one act at a time, as a lever de rideau, or accompaniment to the ballet. ”

“ The fame of a young singer of rare gifts, including the rarest of all, original genius, reached Meyerbeer in Berlin, then vainly seeking an artist to whom he could entrust the unconventional rôle of Selika in his yet unpublished 'Africaine.' At his instigation Mlle. Lucca was engaged for Berlin, where she first appeared in April 1861, and soon roused an enthusiasm rarely equalled by any former singer. She studied the rôle of Selika and others under Meyerbeer's personal supervision. At Berlin she was engaged as Court singer for life ”

“ The guests gather around informally as the piano sighs, moans, murmurs, or dreams under the fingers of the player. Heinrich Heine, the most poetic of humorists, leans on the instrument, and [Pg 104] asks, as he listens to the music and watches the firelight, “if the roses always glowed with a flame so triumphant? if the trees at moonlight sang always so harmoniously?” Meyerbeer, one of the musical giants, sits near at hand lost in reverie; for he forgets his own great harmonies, forged with hammer of Cyclops, listening to the dreamy passion and poetry woven into such quaint fabrics of sound. ”

“ This discourse upon the evening of his taking leave, spoken with warmth and sincerity by such a man, could not fail to make a deep impression upon Spohr and every person present, and it was followed by a silence the most profound; until professor Wichmann, who was the first to recover his self-possession, approached Meyerbeer, and to the just praises conveyed in his excellent speech, replied with much humour in the words: “Positively, Demosthenes was a mere stump orator in comparison to you!” ”

“ Meyer, Conrad Ferdinand, Swiss poet and novelist, native of Zurich; has written “Der Heilige” and many other novels; b. 1825.
Meyerbeer, illustrious musical composer, born at Berlin, of Jewish birth; composer of operatic music, and for over 30 years supreme in French opera; produced “Robert le Diable” in 1831, the “Huguenots” in 1833, “Le Prophète” in 1844, “L'Étoile du Nord” in 1854, the “Dinorah” in 1859 (1791-1864) . ”

“ She had been wont to sing to her mother's friends from her third year; and, even at that period, the intense feeling of melancholy, almost natural to all Swedes, which filled her young soul, gave to her voice an expression which drew tears from the listeners.' Meyerbeer, who happened to be at Paris at the time, heard her, was delighted, and foretold a brilliant future for the young singer. She obtained a hearing [App. p.701 "She was to have appeared"] at the Opera in 1842, but no engagement followed. Naturally hurt at this, she is said to have determined never to accept an engagement in Paris ”

“ Meyerbeer should leave his scores to make their own successes; we should gain one opera out of every three. I admire the more this quality of tenacity of purpose in a man since it is entirely lacking in myself. I have always let managers look after their interests and mine on first nights; and, next day, upon my word! let people say what they like, whether good or ill! I have been working for the stage for twenty-five years now, and writing books for as long: I challenge a single newspaper editor to say he has seen me in his office to ask the favour of a single puff. ”

“ The story of Beethoven's first triumph as a composer is told in a very interesting way by Meyerbeer. When Beethoven was scarcely sixteen years of age he was invited one evening by his good friends, the Von Breunings, of Bonn, to spend the evening with them in the company of a number of well known musicians. ”

“ Meyerbeer was greatly impressed by the theories set forth by Vogler. He immediately put himself to work again and wrote a new fugue of eight parts, according to this master's principles, which he sent directly to Vogler at Darmstadt, his place of residence. The latter replied at once, expressing his satisfaction, and the confidence which this new work gave him in his future as an artist, and inviting him to come to Darmstadt; "I will receive you like a son," said he, "and you shall slake your thirst at the very sources of musical knowledge." ”

“ Meyerbeer is a man of Genius: and works up dramatic Music: but he has scarce any melody, and is rather grotesque and noisy than really powerful. I think this is the fault of modern music; people cannot believe that Mozart is powerful because he is so Beautiful: in the same way as it requires a very practised eye (more than I possess) to recognize the consummate power predominating in the tranquil Beauty of Greek Sculpture. I think Beethoven is rather spasmodically, than sustainedly, grand. ”

“ On the other hand, all my endeavours to get access to the King continued to be fruitless. My chief mediator, to whom I always turned, was still Count Redern, and although my attention had been called to his staunch adherence to Meyerbeer, his extraordinary open and friendly manner always strengthened my belief in his honesty. At last the only medium that remained open to me was the fact that the King could not possibly stay away from the performance of Rienzi, given at his express command, and on this conviction I based all further hope of approaching him. ”

“ In most lines the highest gift is the gift of toil. Indeed, men of genius have often been the most terrible of toilers, and in the regions of highest art. How have the great masters of music first welded the keys of the organ and harpsichord to their fingers' ends and their souls' nerves before they poured forth the Creation or the Messiah, the symphonies and sonatas! Think of Meyerbeer and his fifteen hours of daily work; of Mozart's incessant study of the masters, and his own eight hundred compositions in his short life ”

“ A good deal of his time was now passed in Berlin, where the King had appointed him Kapellmeister. Here he wrote several occasional pieces, cantatas, marches, and dance-music, besides the three-act German opera, 'Ein Feldlager in Schlesien.' The success of this work was magically increased, a few weeks after its first performance, by the appearance in the part of the heroine of a young Swedish singer, introduced to the Berlin public by Meyerbeer, who had heard her in Paris,—Jenny Lind. ”

“ I could dance to this and Beethoven would say I knew more of his soul than half the fools who gape in stuffy concert-halls. Think, Smithy, that man out there has never heard such music—only Meyerbeer's pompous little ballet—and after that he went and stood by the river until the daybreak—because of me——"
Mrs. Smithers shook her head sternly.
"You mustn't, Sigrid—you mustn't. It's not fair—you've always been fair. You know nothing can't come of it. You know yourself. ”

“ But there are fewer elements of popularity in the 'Prophète' than in the 'Huguenots.' The conventional operatic forms are subordinated to declamation and the coherent action of the plot. It contains some of Meyerbeer's grandest thoughts, but the gloomy political and religious fanaticism which constitutes the interest of the drama, and the unimportance of the love-story (the mother being the female character in whom the interest is centred) , are features which appeal to the few rather than the many. The work depends for its popularity on colouring and chiaroscuro ”