Meyerbeer, Giacomo

Meyerbeer, Giacomo (1791-1864), German composer, whose flair for the dramatic influenced the work of the German composer Richard Wagner. He was born Jakob Liebmann Beer in Berlin. His principal composition teacher was the German organist Abbé George Joseph Vogler. Meyerbeer went to Venice in 1815, where he adopted the melodic style of the Italian composer Gioacchino Rossini. Meyerbeer wrote six Italian-style operas, the most successful of which was Il Crociato in Egitto (The Crusader in Egypt, 1824). He then stopped composing, moved to Paris, and studied French opera, which differed from the Italian in its emphasis on lavish settings and ballets (which were inserted as interludes between acts) and in the predominance of choral and instrumental music over solo arias. It also treated more serious subjects, usually historical ones. In his final phase, Meyerbeer composed six French operas that established the grand-opera style and gained him fame throughout Europe. These include Robert le diable (Robert the Devil, 1831), Les Huguenots (1836), Le prophète (1849), and, in rehearsal at the time of his death, L'Africaine (1865).