217 



MEYERBEER, GIACOMO. 



MEYRICK, SIR SAMUEL. 



213 



performed at all the principal theatres in Italy, but was received with 

 favour in Germany. 



But while Meyerbeer was thus beginning to gather laurels in the 

 south, he was looked upon among his own northern compatriots as 

 little better than a renegade German. It is curious to observe what 

 his fellow-student and attached friend, the candid and generous Weber, 

 felt upon this subject. Weber disliked Italian music, and for this 

 charming artist dabbled a little in literature was in his critical 

 writings addicted to ridicule it ; though, it may be observed, had it 

 not been for Italian music, Weber would never have charmed the world 

 by his ' Freischutz ' and his ' Oberon.' Weber was of too gentle a 

 nature to quarrel with his friend for his apostacy, and the warmth of 

 their mutual attachment was not for a moment interrupted ; but there 

 is in Weber's published correspondence a letter to his namesake 

 Gottfried Weber, the celebrated didactic writer on music, which shows 

 how strongly he felt. The author of the ' Freischutz ' is describing a 

 visit which he had just received from Meyerbeer, who had then written 

 his famous 'Crociato in Egitto :' "Last Friday," says Weber, "I 

 had the great joy of having Meyerbeer to spend a whole day with me. 

 Tour ears would have tingled ! It was truly a happy day a remin- 

 iscence of the good old times at Mannheim. We did not part till 

 midnight. Meyerbeer is going to Trieste to produce his ' Crociato.' 

 Next year he returns to Berlin, where he will perhaps write a 

 German opera. Heaven grant it I / have made many appeals to his 

 conscience." 



The production of the ' Crociato in Egitto ' was preceded by that 

 of another Italian opera, ' Margherita d'Anjou ' (founded on the story 

 of the queen of our Henry VI.), which was performed for the first 

 time at Milan in 1822. This piece was received with great favour both 

 in Italy and France, and its success would doubtless have been more 

 lasting had not the author himself thrown ib into the shade by the 

 superior brilliancy of the work by which it was immediately followed. 

 ' Margherita d'Aujou ' did not long retain possession of the stage, but 

 many beautiful pieces from it are still performed at concerts. 



The 'Crociato in Egitto' rivalled the most successful works of 

 Rossini, at a time when that composer's popularity was at its height. 

 Produced at Venice in 1825, it rapidly made the round of all the 

 musical theatres in Europe. In the same year it was brought out at 

 our Italian Opera, then under the active and able management of 

 Mr. Ayrton. It was first performed on the 23rd of July a day 

 memorable in our opera annals, not only on that account, but also for 

 the ddbut of Signor Velluti, the last siuger of a class now entirely 

 extinct. No singer of that class had been heard iu England for thirty 

 yean, and there was a strong prepossession against him. But his 

 great qualities, as a tragedian and a singer, overcame the opposition 

 which he at first encountered. Velluti became the fashionable favourite 

 of the day. He drew crowded houses, and no opera butthe'Cro- 

 criato ' was performed to the end of the season. The following season 

 the management of the theatre was put into his hands ; Mr. Ayrton, 

 in consequence of opera-house intrigues, having been set aside to make 

 way for this Italian, and tho performances of the ' Crociato ' were 

 resumed ; but he was no longer an object of attraction, while he made 

 himself unpopular by a mean and grasping management The theatre 

 was abruptly closed, and Velluti left England before the end of the 

 season. From that time he was no more heard of, and Meyerbeer's 

 opera, in which the music of the principal character was written 

 expressly for him, necessarily disappeared along with him from the 

 stage : had it not been for this, the ' Crociato ' ought to have kept 

 possession of the stage as well as the contemporary pieces of Rossini, 

 for it is a great as well as a beautiful work. 



After the production of the ' Crociato,' Meyerbeer remained seem- 

 ingly inactive for several years. His marriage in 1827, and tho state 

 of melancholy caused by the deaths of two infant children, suspended 

 hi* musical labours; and it was not till the year 1831 that bis next 

 great work, 'Robert le Diable,' made its appearance. He had by this 

 time fixed his residence at Paris, and this piece, of which the libretto 

 U from the pen of M. Scribe, was produced at the Grand Opera. It 

 was received with a degree of enthusiasm almost unprecedented 

 an enthusiasm which spread over Europe, and whicli the lapse of 

 a quarter of a century has scarcely been able to diminish. In the 

 following year Meyerbeer visited London for the first time, in order to 

 superintend the production of this opera at the King's Theatre, then 

 under the management of Mr. Monck Mason, who had purchased from 

 the composer a copy of the score, and the exclusive right of perform- 

 ing it in London. Nevertheless, though this transaction was publicly 

 known, the performance was forestalled by botli of the great English 

 theatres, the managers of which, though not possessed of the genuine 

 score, contrived, each of them, to bring out a spurious piece, bearing 

 Meyerbeer's name, but vamped up by English musicians employed for 

 that purpose, from the piano-forte arrangement of the music, which 

 had been published at Paris. Both Drury Lane and Coveut Garden 

 profited largely by the wrong ; for ' Robert the Devil,' thus clumsily 

 hashed up, drew crowds to both houses during the whole season. At 

 subsequent period the opera was brought on the English stage in a 

 more respectable manner and more complete form. Its production at 

 the Kind's Theatre was not only in its original form and language, but 

 with the company of performers, the costumes, decorations, and pro- 

 perties of the I'aris stage. The Grand Opera was transported for the 



time, as it were, to the Haymarket, But tho business was mismanaged, 

 and so many impediments and delays occurred, that Meyerbeer took 

 his departure before his opera was ready for performance. It was not 

 produced till the season was almost over. Tho present immense 

 popularity of this opera in England is due to its production in an 

 Italian dress at her Majesty's Theatre and at the Royal Italian Opera : 

 at the former house Jenny Liud made her first apperance in this country 

 in the character of ' Alice,' the most beautiful and successful of all 

 her efforts. 



The admiration and delight with which ' Robert le Diable ' waa 

 received on its first production, were mingled with astonishment, 

 created by the composer's total change of style. There was scarcely 

 a trace of the author of the ' Crociato ; ' and it was evident that 

 Meyerbeer, during the apparently inactive years which preceded its 

 production, had been thinking deeply on the principles of his art. 

 His melody, still beautiful, was no longer Italian : it had lost much 

 of the Italian smoothness and prolixity, and had gained terseness and 

 vigour. Dramatic truth was more strictly observed, and Meyerbeer's 

 peculiar power of throwing groups and masses of people into busy 

 and animated action was now for the first time displayed. It was 

 found, in short, that ' Robert le Diable,' as it was one of the greatest, 

 was one of the most original works ever produced. 



All the subsequent great dramatic works of Meyerbeer the 

 'Huguenots,' the ' Prophete,' and the 'litoile du Nord' have been 

 produced for the Parisian stage ; the first two for the Grand Ope'ra, 

 the last for the Ope'ra Comique. The ' Huguenots ' was first performed 

 at Paris in 1836, and at our Royal Italian Opera, in an Italian version, 

 in 1848. The ' Prophete,' originally produced iu 1848, was performed 

 at London, in Italian, in 1849 ; and the ' Etoile du Nord,' brought out 

 at the Opdra Comique in 1854, waa performed at the Royal Italian 

 Opera in 1855, having been adapted to the Italian stage by the com- 

 poser himself, who transformed the original French spoken dialogue 

 into Italian recitative. The poems of all Meyerbeer's French operas 

 have been written by Scribe, a man whose productions tragedies, 

 comedies, operas, vaudevilles, and farces are to be numbered by 

 hundreds, but who has nevertheless given to the world some works 

 which will descend to posterity among the chefs-d'osiivre of the French 

 drama. Meyerbeer has been heard to say that the advantage of having 

 Scribe for a ' collaborateur ' was his principal reason for devoting 

 himself, so exclusively as he has done, to the service of the Parisian 

 stage. And in so doing he has manifested his judgment ; for it cannot 

 be doubted that Scribe's beautiful lyrical poems have stimulated the 

 genus of the composer, and greatly contributed to his success. 



Meyerbeer visited London a second time on the occasion of the 

 production of the ' Etoile du Nord,' which he superintended in person. 

 He mingled a good deal iu our literary and artistic society, and gained 

 much esteem and regard by his intelligent conversation and the 

 unaffected simplicity and kindliness of his manners. Several years 

 ago, another opera, ' Le Cainp de Silesie," originally written for the 

 French stage, was produced by him at Berliu, but not with the success 

 which has attended his other works ; a comparative failure owing, we 

 believe, to the defects of the drama. The best portions of the music 

 have been incorporated in the 'Etoile du Nord.' He now resides 

 principally at Berlin, where he holds the office of Musical Director to 

 the King of Prussia. 



MEYRICK, SIR SAMUEL RUSH, K.H., L.L.D., celebrated for his 

 antiquarian knowledge, particularly in matters relating to ancient 

 armour, was born on the 26th of August 1783, and was the sou of 

 John Meyrick, Esq., of Great George Street, Westminster, and Peter- 

 borough House, Fulham, who waa descended from the Meyricks of 

 Bddorgan in Anglesea. Samuel Rush Meyrick took the degree of 

 B.A. at Queen's College, Oxford, but we have little other information 

 of his early life, beyond the statement that he married when about 

 twenty years of age ; and thus offended his father, who iu consequence 

 so arranged the inheritance of the family property, that it should 

 chiefly pass to the next generation. It thus happened that the large 

 collections of armour which were commenced by the subject of this 

 notice at his residences No. 3, Sloane Terrace, and No. 20, Upper 

 Cadogan Place, were purchased with the money of his son, and were 

 known as those of Llewelyn Meyrick, Esq. The original intention, 

 as to property was however frustrated ultimately by the death of 

 that son in 1837. 



Samuel Rush Meyrick adopted the branch of the legal profession 

 connected with the Ecclesiastical and Admiralty Courts, in which, as 

 Dr. Meyrick, he practised for many years. Prior to this, in 1810, 

 he had published 'The History and Antiquities of the County 

 of Cardigan.' In 1812, he was engaged upon a history on the plan 

 of that of Dr. Henry, relating to the period of the monarohs of the 

 British blood, before their abdication in 703. The materials, which 

 were collected for a work of great extent, were however not published 

 in the form intended. But iu 1814, with Captain Charles Hamilton 

 Smith, he produced a work on the ' Costume of the Original Inhabit- 

 ants of the British Islands,' which was published in 4to with plates. 

 His great work on Arms and Armour was published in 1824 in 

 three 4to volumes, under the title, 'A Critical Inquiry into Ancient 

 Armour aa it existed in Europe, but more particularly in England 

 from the Norman Conquest to the reign of King Charles II., with a 

 Glossary of Military Terms of the Middle Ages.' A new edition of 



