MEYERBEER, Giacomo

Born in Vogelsdorf, near Berlin, Germany, Sept 5, 1791
Died in Paris, France, May 2, 1864

• Meyerbeer was the 19^th century’s most performed opera composer. He was also known as a piano virtuoso.¹
• Though born in Germany, Meyerbeer spent much of his career composing French opera for Parisian productions.²
• His birth name was Jakob Liebmann Meyer. As adult he added his mother’s maiden name to his surname. His mother Amalia [Beer] Meyer hosted an influential artistic salon where young Meyerbeer met many of the artistic stars of the day.³
• Amalia Meyer and Lea Mendelssohn (mother of Felix & Fanny) were cousins.⁴
• Meyerbeer and the Mendelssohns both studied with the same composition teacher, Friedrich Zelter, but took divergent creative directions: Felix’s music was deemed more conservative and historically-influenced and Meyerbeer’s was more designed for popular appeal.⁵
• Apparently Felix Mendelssohn and Giacomo Meyerbeer had a family resemblance. During a visit to Paris in 1831, where Meyerbeer was a celebrity opera composer, Mendelssohn’s friend Ferdinand Hiller told him he looked like Meyerbeer, so Felix got a haircut.⁶
  • I can definitely see the resemblance in these portraits of Meyerbeer and Mendelssohn.

1. Matthias Brzoska, “Meyerbeer [Beer], Giacomo,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed November 19, 2019, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000018554.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. R. Larry Todd, Mendelssohn: A Life in Music (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003), 117.
5. Todd, Mendelssohn, 43.
6. Ibid., 252.