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From Chambers's Journal.
MEYERBEER AND HIS MUSIC.

Giacomo Meyerbeer is the son of a rich and well known Jewish banker of the same, or, as it has been otherwise stated, James THE life of Giacomo Meyerbeer, now the Beer; and was born in Berlin, in the year most illustrious of living composers for the op- 1791-so that he must be now about sixtyeratic stage, is one which should convey a four years old. At a very early age, he hopeful and valuable lesson to those who labor manifested a strong predilection for music, in the cause of art. By no coup de main has and while still very young, attracted much athe won the command of all the great Opera- tention by his talents as a pianist. His love for houses of Europe; by no lucky chance or the divine art appears to have been encouragclever audacity has he risen to the highest em-ed by those who superintended his progress inence known to his especial vocation; but by in life. When only nineteen years of age, he career of extraordinary application, by pa- was placed under the tuition of the celebrated tient elaboration, and an incessant exacting Abbé Vogler, once the detested and ridiculed particularity almost without a parallel in the of Mozart, an old school teacher of counterhistory of maestri. For forty years has he point, but still a musical doctrinaire with a been climbing to the mountain-steep; and theory of composition of his own. In this posinow, in the fulness of days, he stands upon the tion, he became the fellow-pupil of one of the Olympian height-his purpose achieved, his most glorious geniuses the world has ever pro'own idea' so wrought out and impressed duced-the unique expositor of German romanupon the world, that the Meyerbeerian Opera tic Opera, Carl Maria von Weber. It appears is now a distinct and colossal feature in musi- that the two students- acolytes of immortalical art, completely sui generis, and apart from ty,' to use a phrase of Goethe's became comparison or imitation. To all aspiring art- greatly attached to each other. Pursuing ists, the spectacle of a composer rising step by their studies with enthusiasm they worked tostep, in spite of competition and obstruction, gether, sharing the same room, and particiand after repeated failures, to the very highest pating in congenial ambitions. Two years pinnacle of fame and popularity, cannot but after Meyerbeer had become a pupil of Vogler, be encouraging and stimulating. Especially the abbe closed his school, and made a tour to English composers would we point out M. through Germany for a twelvemonth with his Meyerbeer as an example, on account of his pupils, at that time four in number. Under loyalty to his own original ideas. The great his direction, Meyerbeer produced at Munich cause of our weakness in English Opera, lies his opera of Jephtha, the libretto by Schreiber. in the fact that our composers, from Arne The young composer was as yet, however, too down to Bishop and from Bishop to Balfe, faithful a disciple of the old contrapuntist. have based their conceptions upon Italian His work did him credit as a student, but and German models, so that it cannot be there was nothing in it to bewitch the ear of said that there is a school of English Opera the public. The opera failed. His second in existence. But Meyerbeer would always attempt, The Two Caliphs, another exercise be Meyerbeer, whether writing for the Ger- of ingenuity and scholarship, met, in the first man, Italian, or French stage; and notwith-place, with a similar fate. This was a comic standing that he commenced his career at a opera, and was produced both at Stuttgart time when the world was ravished with the and Vienna, but with no success. Weber, fascinating strains of Rossini, he kept faith in whose friendship for his fellow-pupil was still his own theory, clung to it,, worked for it, nobly sustained, and who neglected no opporwaited for it, until at length he has secured tunity of assisting his career, exerted himself for it an audience which embraces every city to rescue this work from perdition. Owing in the world where there is an Opera-house. to his influence, it was afterwards performed It must not be forgotten, however, that much at Prague, under the name of Abimalek, or of the excitement at present existing with Host and Guest, and under its new form and regard to Meyerbeer is the result of fashion. auspices actually met with considerable success. That excitement will be modified in course of The veteran Salieri-who, in his younger time, when the composer will be more correct-days, had, like Vogler, been the contemporary ly appreciated. However little his music may and competitor of Mozart-advised the young enter into that general vogue which has been composer to visit Italy for the express purgained by Rossini, Donizetti, and Weber, his grand operas will live as great master-pieces, as perfected and elaborate chefs-d'œuvre.

pose of cultivating a taste for melody. This counsel he followed, and made a sojourn in the immemorial land of song.

As we are not aware that any memoir of In 1817, he produced at Padua an opera Meyerbeer has been published, the following entitled Romilda à Costanza, of which, howfew particulars, gleaned from various sources, ever, we know nothing more than the name. may not be uninteresting at the present In 1819, Semiramide Reconoscinta, the libretto time:by Metastasio, was brought out at Turin-of

which also we know nothing. For the great leading an eccentric life, he has provoked the Opera-house of La Scala, at Milan, he wrote patience of the world by studiously keeping Margherita d'Anjou; and for the same thea- aloof from the field on which he had won a tre, L'Exile di Granata, which was produced name and fame which will endure as long as in 1823. None of these works, however, there are minds and hearts to appreciate the whatever degree of success they might have won sweetest melodies and the richest style of vocal at first, have been able to keep the stage. But part-writing which any theatrical composer, the next in chronological order was a great step excepting Mozart, has yet attained. And the in advance, and presents the first work which provocation has been all the more intolerable, made a marked and wide-spread impression- since, from time to time, the "hermit of Bonamely, Il Crociato in Egytto, which was pro- logna" has put forth fugitive works-now a duced at Venice in 1825. This caused a Stabat Mater, and now a few choruses-which complete furore, and seems to have almost have proved to demonstration that he still turned the heads of the enthusiastic and im- possesses as strongly as ever those glorious passioned Italians. It contains some charm-gifts which so charmed the last generation as ing music, and, among other things, one deli- to give color and justification to the mot of cious little chorus, "Nel silenzio" the beau- Talleyrand:-" At present, I and Rossini tiful melody of which is popular to this day all govern the world." the world over.

Robert made the fortune of the lucky Dr. Veron.

Besides these works, M. Meyerbeer composed two which have never been performed Following up this grand success, M. Meyer-namely, La Porte de Brandebourg, written beer still further clenched his hold upon the for the Berlin stage, and Almasor, written for public by the production of Les Huguenots, the Roman theatre, but never played on ac- still regarded as his greatest work, which took count of the sudden illness of Madame Rossi, place at the Académie in 1836. This, unthe prima-donna. doubtedly, is one of the most extraordinary Il Crociato is the last opera which M. Mey-productions with which the public has ever erbeer composed for the Italian Opera. He become acquainted through the operatic stage. seems to have been satisfied with his success For seven or eight years, M. Meyerbeer was on that field, and to have resolved upon try- busy over it. The result is a wonderful exhiing his powers in the province of French grand bition of artistic ingenuity and dramatic colorOpera. He followed, in fact, a course of close ing. The excitement it occasioned even surcompetition with Rossini. Having, by the passed that produced by Robert. The work unequivocal success of Il Crociato, established incontestably contains some of the grandest himself as his rival on the Italian stage, he music in the whole operatic repertoire. Twelve followed him to the Grand Opera (the Aca- years after this, the now illustrious maestro démie) of Paris. M. (now of world-wide ce- brought forth his third grand opera, Le Prolebrity as Dr.) Veron was then the director of phete, on the same boards, in 1849, after being the Académie. Rossini's Guillaume Tell had in rehearsal more than a year-a characterbeen produced, and all the world was hum-istic speciality of the composer's exacting de- • ming those enchanting melodies of the green liberation and inexorable conscientiousness. hills of Tyrol, and the bewitching airs de bal- The immense success of this production must let, and talking about the immortal "Suivez- be still fresh in the memories of all readers moi!" which, since Duprez lost the compass who take any note of musical affairs. of his glorious voice, has never been given Having, by these remarkable successes in with such electric brilliancy as by the Tam- works of the highest pretension, won a leading berlik of our own day. At this time, when name in Italian Opera and French romantic the star of the Italian composer shone with Opera, M. Meyerbeer turned his conquering such meridian brightness, M. Meyerbeer re- gaze towards the Opéra Comique-the domain, solved to contest the ground with him. Six as it has been properly styled, of Boildieu, years after Il Crociato was produced, he Auber, and Halévy. Here, again, he has brought forward his Robert le Diable, a grand been triumphant. In 1854, at that most brilopera on the scale of the Académie, a work liant of theatres, on the Boulevard Italien, he on which he had bestowed almost incredible brought forth his latest work, L'Etoile du care and pains. The success of this most Nord. It was performed one hundred times romantic and exciting of óperas was immense. uninterruptedly, and alternately brought forAmidst the acclamations that greeted its most ward with no less fortunate results in the original snatches of melody, its impassioned chief musical cities of Germany and France; scenas, and stirring and extraordinary cho- and now, during the present season in Lonruses, Signor Rossini quitted Paris, declaring don, at the Covent Garden Opera, where the that he would never write another bar for enthusiasm of an audience of dilettanti comthe stage. Unfortunately, he has kept his pelled the composer to cross the stage twice word. Passing most of his time at Bologna, amidst applausive ovations which, perhaps,

have never before been equalled so far north our ears long after we have heard it. The of Milan as this.

Here, for the present, is the culmination of a busy and indefatigable career of upwards of forty years.

closeness with which M. Meyerbeer adheres to his text, makes his compositions appear patchy when heard in a detached form; and the indifference with which he frequently inWith regard to M. Meyerbeer's music, its terrupts the course of a beautiful melody, besetting peculiarity is its unintermittent dra- | when the sentiment of a line of poetry excites matic character. His operas are great master- him, has been remarked by every hearer of pieces as wholes. With the exception of the his works. There is no doubt that the effect fine scena, Robert, toi qui j'aime," the of early training has something to do with this romance," Quand je quittais la Normandie," peculiarity. Those who have read the methe scena, "Va, dit-elle," and one or two moirs of Mozart, must remember how, in one other pieces, none of his compositions find of his letters to his father, he grumbles about their way into the programmes of popular con- the music of the Abbé Vogler, declaring that certs. You will find a score of morceaux by he "goes into keys as if he would tear one in Mozart, Weber, Rossini, Bellini, and Doni- by the hair of the head ;" and that though one zetti, to every one of Meyerbeer's, notwith- should discover, now and then, "an idea that, standing that the latter has now for many is not bad," yet no sooner is the discovery years been at the head of existing operatic made, than the composer starts off into somecomposers. The reason lies in his intense and thing else, and disappoints expectation. This perpetual dramatic coloring. A terzetto, a was between twenty and thirty years before quartetto, or a chorus from Les Huguenots, Le Weber and Meyerbeer became pupils of the Prophete, or L'Etoile, detached and performed abbé; but though each of them has proved at a concert, would be about as uninteresting an the possession of genius, of which their teacher affair as an extracted chapter of Guy Manner- never made any manifestation, yet it is very ing to a reader who knew nothing of the story. possible that his theory of composition tended Meyerbeer's music can only be heard in the towards the development of that peculiar style theatre, in connection with the incidents and of writing in which great effects are produced scenery of the drama. There is nothing of by abrupt changes of key. Weber was alempiricism in his operas-he writes nothing ways so felicitous in this expedient for effect, for the music-shops. The situations and pas- as to render it highly popular; and to this sions set forth in his libretto have his concen- day he has a host of imitators, especially trated attention. To portray these with the among the German lied writers. M. Meyerutmost possible fidelity seems to be his sole aim. He has certainly never courted popularity by means of catching-ballads and easy choruses, but has always worked like an artist having ideas and a theory of his own, and resolute to achieve their development.

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beer, however, is, after all, not a Weber; though it is very possible that his grand operas, from their individuality, largeness of structure, and completeness of elaboration, may live as long as the incomparable Freischutz.

To conclude-we do not believe the name Yet, he is not without the power of writing of Meyerbeer will ever be a household word melodies, beautiful and engaging, simply as amongst us. He has written for the theatre melodies; witness the chorus Nel silenzio," alone, and in the theatre only shall we be able in Il Crociato-the romance "Quand je quit- to hear and admire him. For our hometais," in Robert-the first romance of "Raoul" amusement, our social practice and displays, and the airs de ballet, in the Huguenots-the we are still left to the songs, duets, trios, and beautiful chorus "Ecco già il se Profetti," the quartettos of Donizetti, Rossini, Bellini, and aria "Sol pianto il ciglio versur," and the Weber-that is, if our taste inclines us to the famous march, in the Prophète, not to mention music of the Italian and German masters many other examples. The melody in each rather than to that of our own, as the writer of these morceaux is original. flowing, or of these remarks confesses is the case with piquant, and possessing that attribute of pop- himself. ularity which exhibits itself in music haunting

ILLUSIONS.

When trav'lling in the railroad car,
Capricious landscapes meet us;
The near desert us, but the far

Seem coming round to greet us.

The march of life this mimics well;
The journey still bereaves us;
In hopes of what 's to come we dwell,
But that, in turn, deceives us !
W. O. E.

Transcript.

From The Spectator, 1 Sept.
VERSAILLES.

that the gorgeousness showed forth real wealth, that the power to command the arts which flashed lights across the sky and shed the beauties of the rainbow upon the sleeping landscape obeyed the command of a higher power, which can send forth the lightnings of

VICTORIA at Versailles! The very words are an epigram, stuffed with historical parallels and more historical paradoxes. They conjure up a host of dreams from the past-splendid, war to vindicate, under Divine Providence, ghastly, heroic, gentle, wild and wicked; justice and the welfare of mankind. Turn it dreams which warn us that the bright present how you will, it is the genius presiding over all may be but a prelude to a dark future, unless that distinguishes between the true and false, wisdom itself preside even over the pageantries the bad and the good, the transitory and the of state. The grand-daughter of George the permanent. Queen Victoria might reflect Third entertained by the heir of the First Na- without bitterness on those who had been the poleon, in the mansion begun by Louis the objects of fêtes in the same scene before; but Thirteenth and created a palace by Louis the if so, it would be that she called to mind the Fourteenth-the simple event provokes many element of goodness in the heart of the most branching questions, affecting not only the fate unhappy lady that ever was the idol of the of nations politically, the fate of the persons hour to the Grande Monarque. Eugénie sat there engaged, but the actual state of morals where Antoinette almost last sat before her; both in England and in France. How do we the consort of the monarch coming instead of stand? What does it mean? are the con-going-the wife of a parvenue instead of a clusions which we suppose ourselves to have departing king. But if there is anything adsettled as firmly established as we imagined mirable in the fate of Eugénie, it is something last week? The persons present at the fêtes apart from regal accessories: strip her of of this day challenge the comparison with those who have been before them. Where blameless Prince Albert now trod the ground, footsteps of Louis the Thirteenth had been before. Victoria enjoyed fêtes prepared publicly for her, where secretly La Villière had been the object of fetes prepared by Louis Quatorze. The young Prince of Wales will draw some of his pleasantest memories from scenes where Louis the Fifteenth marked the steady decline of his race—for he was more depraved than his predecessor, more concentrated in his selfishEach man who has occupied the post of ness. The Princess Royal might store up chief ruler in France, and has passed away, against future years the memory of Marie An- whether King, Director, Emperor, or Presitoinette, woed from an Imperial house to be dent, has had to yield his post because he did the wife of a husband more condemned by not understand the terms of his tenure. Each fate than his predecessors-for, although not accepted a special mission, and was swept worse than they, he was weaker. And there, away because he could understand no more. where the gayest throng that ever mustered Louis the Sixteenth was faithful to his duty as under the glow of a thousand ball-room lamps he understood it; but he, poor man, could not stood still while "God save the Queen" ush-pierce with his enervated eyesight through the ered the royal party into the saloon, fear- avenging host summoned by the sins of his stricken Royalty heard the uncomely deputa- forefathers. Robespierre understood vention of women marching up the avenue from geance, not the founding of republics; NapoParis, singing "Vive Henri Quatre" in a burst leon understood campaigning, not governof expiring loyalty. That wild escort waited the night, and then departed with its Royal charge, leaving the court-yards of the splendid palace to grass and silence, broken afterwards only by the hoe of the weeder.

diadem, jewels, imperial robes, and the most precious portion remains. Those the Prince that woed her gave: does he value them as that which she gave to him? If he does, unhappy she! unhappy he! and the humble man who has, in some obscure corner of this wide and wandering world the counterpart of Eugénie without diadem, diamonds, or robes, is more of a monarch than Napoleon with all his eagles and bees. But in that doubt lies the kernel of the whole question.

ment; Louis the Eeghteenth understood the being restored, not active renovation; Charles the Tenth, the past without the present; Louis Philippe, trading puffs, not the duties of a responsible king; Cavaignac, the accidence of The fêtes that entertained Queen Victoria Republicanism a la Français as studied in the on Saturday night were too real to be disturbed miasmata of African exile" on duty," not the by dark dreams of the past like those; and yet requirements of France in Europe; and each such thoughts must have recurred; and in the passed away because his understanding was midst of reflection, the question must have not enough. The Hotel de Ville has witnessed arisen to the mind of the thinker, whether, immortal alliances that are no more; the halls even in the show of the hour, the pictorial of Versailles have heard the memories cf fêtes effect constituted the truly striking element. mocked by the hoe of the weeder in the desert It was something that the diamonds were real, court-yards: is this pageant a mockery—this

alliance immortal a la Parisienne-this ruler of France still ignorant of the undiscovered tenure? Or is the round of experiments over; has the series of corruptions ceased; have these fetes of the Third Napoleon ended the cycle with which the fêtes of Louis Quatorze began?

From The Spectator, 25 Aug.
THE KISS.

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Italy, Germany, and England. A lady, he says, must not only kiss a nobleman on his first visit, but "the three valets in his suite." On the other hand, the genial Erasmus glories in the abundance which he finds in England. It would, he says to Faustus, entice you to a country where "nymphs beautiful as angels" will kiss you whenever you come and whenever you go. How strangely do customs alter! We, in what Erasmus describes as the land of kisses, are amazed to see the ceremony revived, TWICE hath Queen Victoria been kissed by as it were, on the frontier between France and a French Monarch - namely, by Louis Phi- England; "profligate France" being, at the lippe, and now by Napoleon the Third. The present day, precisely that country where lalatter is the more surprising event: for Louis dies make this little favor rare at least ostenPhilippe was at once in a humbler position, sibly. But "nice customs courtesy to great and, to say it plainly, was more of an old hum-kings." bug; so that the freedom might pass off with the less wonderment. He was the father of a family, some of whom were older than the young Queen, and he touched her cheek with his lips professedly in a spirit of paternity, as Jove kissed his favorite daughter the fair queen "Oscula libavit natæ." The Emperor is not yet exactly a family man; he has not yet escaped the adventurous age; and his rise has been at once more rapid, more recent, and more extreme. How wild would it have been some few years ago, if he had said to some of his companions, perhaps in the neighborhood of Kensington, that "on the 18th of August in the year of grace 1855, I will take Queen Victoria in my brotherly embrace and will kiss her upon both cheeks." Yet vaunts as wild have been uttered, and have been fulfilled- as witness these presents.

Like all ceremonies, this, however trifling, may be attended by the gravest consequences. All lies in the animus osculandi. The favor may be a trifle, a treachery, a pledge. Every member of the Christian Church must recall the tragedy that followed one memorable instance; Cæsar could tell a not dissimilar story of treachery to a Pagan leader; and souls may be lost as well empires and crowns. Hence, a professor of philosophy at Leyden cites Socrates as dissuading from the ceremony, Ovid as proving its alarming consequences; but Socrates is half-jesting with Alcibiades, and Ovid is laying down a maxim for fast gentlemen in all

ages:

Oscula qui sumpsit, si non et cætera sumpsit, Hæc quoque quæ data sunt perdere dignus erat. Napoleon the Third is not Alcibiades; and, as Bayle remarks, it would be foolish to quote the verses of Ovid, which certainly refer not to simple ceremony. The action may be pretty, or shocking, according to the spirit in which it

is used.

Strange, that for so trifling an act as a kiss so much fuss should be made? We even speak of it in a fastidious style, though it is as public as the sun himself. We touch upon it under protest and as it were with a "by your leave." We may, in fact, deal with it most easily when When the French Princess kissed it is least worthy to be dealt with. Montaigne the mouth of Clement Marot, when Joab kissed notices the anomaly in part: "we speak bold- Amasa, or Nelson said "Kiss me, Hardy," the ly," he says, "of killing, wounding, and be- action was as different as refined taste, crime, traying; while, on this point, we dare only The question, then, is the animus with which and childlike affection, are from each other. whisper." Yet he forgot that we may discuss the kiss itself, if it be of a base kind. The kiss the ceremony was employed, on this last occaof Judas is proverbial; that which the con- sion; and to learn that, we must look into the spirators gave to Julius Caesar might be de-inscrutable mind of the Third Napoleon. bated in Parliament; for it is part of a mur- There may, indeed, be other "cætera" bederous conspiracy, and shares the privilege of sides those that Ovid means. Certainly there murder by being open to the discussions of are qualities of greatness in the French Empetlemen. We must deal delicately, however, ror which were never suspected when we had with the osculations of Jove or Louis Philippe him here familiarly amongst us. still more slightly glance at the Imperial success portent may herald not treacheries but magnaof a Napoleon; and there we must absolutely nimities, not calamities but prosperities. "draw the line," discussing no further.

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If it has not unfrequently happened that the civility must not be so much as mentioned, at other times it has become a drug. Montaigne

The recent

From the Economist, 25 Aug. THE QUEEN IN PARIS. HER MAJESTY, the grand-daughter of notices the abuse of over-supply in most of the George III., has passed a week at Paris as the countries that took their manners from France honored guest of a Bonaparte. Frenchmen

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