Giacomo Meyerbeer and his Family Between Two Worlds

In the mid-nineteenth century Giacomo Meyerbeer dominated the operatic world. The first Jewish composer to achieve international fame, he staged his grand operas in France. His second work, Les Huguenots, became the first opera to reach 1,000 performances at the Paris Opéra. He was born in Berlin in 1791 as Meyer Beer, the eldest son of Jacob and Amalia Beer. As European Jews emerged from the ghetto, his wealthy parents took a leading role in creating a more integrated Jewish identity. Jacob became a pioneer of Reform Judaism, while Amalia held a glittering musical salon. His brother Wilhelm built an observatory, where he and his scientific partner, Johann Mädler, made the first accurate maps of the moon and Mars. A milestone in the history of astronomy. Later Wilhelm became a railway entrepreneur, a banker and a politician. The youngest son Michael was a dramatist and poet who died at the age of 33. His third play was admired by Goethe, who staged it at Weimar. This biography reveals the story of a remarkable family who fought prejudice and intolerance to become role models for their contemporaries, and whose lives illuminate a crucial and formative period in German-Jewish history

Elaine Thornton trained as a linguist, and has lived and worked in Germany, Russia and Cyprus. She has had a varied career, as an army officer, project manager, freelance editor, and fundraiser. She has a passion for opera, with a particular interest in the French grand operas of Meyerbeer.

Acknowledgements 
Prologue 
1. Ancestors: The Jews of Berlin 
2. The House on Spandauer Street 
3. A Suitable Marriage 
4. Napoleon: Crisis and Opportunity 
5. The Budding Genius 
6. Prussian Patriots
7. War and Peace 
8. Dame of the Order of Louise 
9. The Beer Temple: The First Phase 
10. The Villa in the Tiergarten 
11. The Beer Temple: Revival and Closure 
12. A Musical Apprenticeship 
13. The Young Playwright 
14. Expanding Horizons 
15. ‘Meyerbeer has made himself immortal’ 
16. At the Court of King Ludwig 
17. The Black Sheep 
18. The Beer Observatory 
19. The ‘Anxious Genius’ 20. Return to Berlin 
21. The ‘Queen Mother’
22. Revolution and Reaction 
23. Finale 
Epilogue 
List of Illustrations 
Bibliography 
Index