Giacomo Meyerbeer

Giacomo Meyerbeer born Jacob Liebmann Beer 5 September 1791 2 May 1864 was a German opera composer of Jewish birth who has been described as perhaps the most successful stage composer of the nineteenth century. With his 1831 opera Robert le diable and its successors he gave the genre of grand opera decisive character. Meyerbeers grand opera style was achieved by his merging of German orchestra style with Italian vocal tradition. These were employed in the context of sensational and melodramatic libretti created by Eugne Scribe and were enhanced by the uptodate theatre technology of the Paris Opra. They set a standard which helped to maintain Paris as the opera capital of the nineteenth century.