Giacomo Meyerbeer: A Life in Letters. This item is unavailable.Giacomo Meyerbeer: A Life in Letters

This is a collection of letters by Meyerbeer, the operatic composer who died in 1864. Critics have recently re-evaluated his work, recognizing his musical craftmanship, his dramatic sense and his influence on later operatic composers. His operas - "Il Crociato", "Robert le diable", "Les Huguenots", "Le Prophete" and "L'etoile du nord" - were extremely successful in Paris at the time of his death. However, the fashionable anti-semitism of the late 19th century meant that his reputation faded quickly. Heinz and Gudrun Becker, the editors of Meyerbeer's "Letters and Diaries", have selected representative letters from all periods of his life to provide a well balanced picture of the composer's personality and place in history.