Meyerbeer's Italian Operas
Giacomo Meyerbeer is the only composer who wrote for three different and equally important eras of 19th century music. His works straddle the German Romantic school, Italian bel canto and French grand opera and opéra-comique. After his early career in Berlin, Darmstadt, Munich and Vienna, Meyerbeer famously travelled to Italy where he lived for ten years. His six operas written between 1817 and 1824 established Meyerbeer as a significant composer in Italy, with an international reputation growing more or less incrementally with each new work. The treasures of these works have been rediscovered in recent decades (1979-2019). This study examines these works in terms of origins, content and performance history.
Robert Ignatius Letellier was educated in Grahamstown (South Africa), Cambridge (UK), Salzburg (Austria), Rome (Italy) and Jerusalem (Israel). He is a member of Trinity College, Cambridge, the Maryvale Institute in Birmingham, and the Institute of Continuing Education at Madingley Hall, Cambridge. His publications number over 100 items, including books and articles on the early and Romantic novel (particularly the gothic novel and Sir Walter Scott), the Bible, history, and European culture. He specializes in the Romantic opera, with a particular focus on the works of Giacomo Meyerbeer, Fromental Halévy, Daniel François Esprit Auber, and Adolphe Adam; the opéra comique; the operetta; Ludwig Minkus; and nineteenth century ballet.
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