The Sun.
London, England, 1864-06-09 00:00:00

Anecdotes about Meyerbeer.

Mr. :;horley writes as follows in Saturday's:..eftlrenceum :
—Every one is now naturally contributing to the public his
recollections of Meyerbeer. When these bear the signature
of an artist, so well known and reputed as M. Offenbach,
for history's sake they are worthy of credence, or correc-
tion, as they case may be. This is what he states in the
Gt and Journal on a subject which, he may be possibly
unaware, has been largely canvassed in England for some
years past. "On his return from England," writes M.
Offenbach, "Meyerbeer spoke to me, with admiration,
of the majestic execution of Handel's ' Messiah,' by 700
musicians. ' I was so much struck with it,' said he, 'that
I promised to myself to write an oratorio for London.'—
Well, master ? was my question. lam at work I' was the
reply. This oratorio, if not finished, must be in a very for-
ward state." Is there not some misapprehension in this
statement ? Ever since the death of Mendelssohn, so far
back, at least, as the year 1855, when L'Etoile du Nord'
was produced at the old Royal Italian Opera-house,
the Committee of the Birmingham Festival (the
greatest musical meeting in Europe) have, with small
intermission and every possible inducement, such
as respect and earnest desire could offer, invited
Meyerbeer to write an oratorio for them. I can speak to
this point, having more than once been the medium of
messages and persuasions bearing out official proposals.
Without positively declining, Meyerbeer hesitated on the
plea of engagements, unacquaintance with the English
language, want of practice in the style, &c. Two years
ago, at the Handel Festival in the Crystal Palace, he ex-
pressed himself as having been profoundly impressed
with the execution of ' Israel' by the orchestra of .four
thousand performers. In particular, he adverted to
the effect of the organ employed in Handel's Ora-
torios, as a new, sensation to him. " I had heard it,"
he said, "at our Garrison Church, at Berlin, when
Mendelssohn conducted sacred music ; but there it produced
no effeot :"—and no wonder, since drearier place for music
could hardly be cited than that huge, bald building I At
this last visit to England I believe Meyerbeer was again
solicited on the subject of an oratorio for England, with
reference to the coming Birmingham Festival ; but I
know that he spoke to me on the matter when I saw him
at Berlin, in September, 1862—clearly stating that he
did entertain the idea, not being sure how fa: he
could succeed ; but adding, that he was engaged, by
way of experiment, on a Biblical opera—l presume the
" Judith," which has been more than once adverted to, and
which, it is needless to add, as was clearly pointed out to
him, would be a work inadmissible to the stage in London.
It may save writers to come trouble to have the dates of
Meyerbeer's four visits to England. The first was in 1832,
when his " Robert" was produced under Mr Monck Mason's
management; the second, in 1855, when " L'E toile" was
given; the third, in 1859, at the introductionof"Dinorah;'
the fourth and last, two years ago, when his March Over•
ture brought him to the Great Exhibition.

In coaneotion with Meyerbeer, we may add the following
notes : —M. d'Ortigue has written some articles in the
Journal des .Debats which contain information not to be
passed over. He confirms what has been said of the mass
of manuscripts left by Meyerbeer, and adds, "I am assured
that Meyerbeer has disposed of these in a singular fashiou,
These works (‘ L'Africainet excepted) are to be locked up
in a closet, to be handed over to such of his grand-children
or great-great-grandchildren as shall give signs of remark-
able musical dispositions,"
The French critic bears out to the fullest all that has
been said of Meyerbeer's courtliness and indecision—telling
how he flattered his orchestra during the exhaustion of
months of rehearsal—how he tried, altered, rejected, combi-
nation after combination, passage after passage. The follow-
ing anecdote shows to what firm purpose he could turn his
finesse. M. Jouy, the tiresome Academician, to whom we
owe the bad book of Guillaume Tell,' was resolved, M.
d'Ortigue tells us, to fasten himself on Meyerbeer, who,
discreetly, was no less resolute to admit of no such partner.
ship. M. Jouy had his manuscript cut and dried, and waited
only for Meyerbeer's arrival in Paris to pounce on him with
it. His coming had been announced. "But Meyerbeer,"
says M. d'Ortigue, " was not one of those who write three
months beforehand in their memorandum-book, on such
a day I shall go to such a place,' and who keep their
word. As an instance,—his first Parisian publisher,
M. Schlesinger, assures me that he paid fifteen days
sunning for a place in the Calais mail, consequently
an empty place, in the name of Meyerbeer, who put off his
journey from day to day, and, atter all, did not come till
three weeks later." The resolute Academician, on the oc-
casion described, waylaid the Barrier through which
Meyerbeer was to drive, one, two, three, four, five, six days
running. At last the Master appeared, and while his ser-
vant was busy with affairs of the octroi, the Academician
charged the carriage, poem in hand—" Here I am, Master,
with my manuscript—this time you shall not escape me."
"My dear M. de Jouy," said Meyerbeer, with his perfect
urbanity, " I should be truly flattered to have such a,.
literary comrade as yourself, but one thing makes me
afraid and draw back. You have had the fortune to have
your name attached to two masterpieces of the lyric stage
of our period, 'La Vestale' and ' Guillaume Tell.' You
must admit that it would be presumption on my part to
pretend to add a third to the list, and to put myself in the
same line as Spontini and Rossini." "Rossini," cried the
fatuous Academician, " don't talk to me about him I He
has spoilt my ' Guillaume Tell.' The unlucky fellow 1 I
gave him three colours, the warlike colour, the Swiss colour,
the Austrian colour—and he has missed all the three 1"
Meyerbeer, adds M. d'Ortigue, kept to himself this anec-
dote (than which there is surely none richer in the annals
of mortal conceit) during many years.

A marriage is arranged between Mr Mundy, son
of Mr W. Mundy, member for South Derbyshire, and Miss
Emily Cavendish, daughter of the Hon. Richard Caven-
dish.

The Right Hon. Sir Robert Peel had a Parlia-
mentary dinner yesterday evening, at his house in White-
hall-gardens, when the following noblemen and gentlemen
were present :—Lord Burghley, Lnrd Frederick Fitzroy,
Lord Robert Montagu, Viscount Newport, the Lord Advo-
cate, Hon. Locke King, Hon. Dudley Fortescue, Hon.
Arthur Kinnaird, Sir Rickard Buikeley, Bart., Sir James
Fergusson, Bart., Sir William Dunbar, Bart., Sir Morton
Peto, Colonel Taylor, Mr M. Bellew, Mr Wykeham
Martin, Mr Laird, Mr Bazley, Mr Egerton, and Mr
Sa neon.

THE STATE OF THE CLYDE.—The state of the
Clyde is at present something dreadful. The
Thames, churned by innumerable steamboats, if smelt from
the parapets of Westminster or London bridges, has the
odour of a rose compared with our Clyde. Let any one
look at the surface of our canal-like river, from the Victoria
Bridge to and below Renfrew, when the water may happen
to be still, and he will observe that the smooth surface pre-
sents the appearance of heavy raindrops falling into it all
over, and a considerable shower is represented by the agita-
tion. Now, this is not descending rain, but escaping gases.
Sometimes a considerable quantity of this material bubbles
up, and you are tempted to suppose that fish has not fled
from our river, although it is " vexed by innumerable keels.'
It might serve some useful end that a chymist were collect-
ing some of this air of paradise by inverting over one of
those gurgling escapes a bell-jar vessel, and sending it with
its gaseous contents as a present to the River Trust on their
first meeting.—North British. Daily Mail.
ANOTHER COLLISION WITH AN ASCOT TRAIN.
Shortly before 6 o'clock last evening a collision
took place between a South-Western Railway train and an
engine belonging to the South-Eastern Railway Company
at the goods yard junction near the Reading station, but
the accident was, fortunately, unaccompanied by injury to
human life. The station is jointly used by the two com-
panies, and at the above hoar a train arrived with passen-
gers from Ascot, and the empty carriages were shunted out
of the station by the South-Western engine ; when they had
reached within a short distance of the switch-box they
came into collision with a South-Eastern Company's
engine, which was shunting across the same line on which
-irri',ges were, and the consequence was that the
a, a horse box, and two carriages were thrown
the empty o, and each more or less damaged. The whole
guard's breihe buffer plank of the South-Eastern engine was
off the line but the engine itself kept its position on the
length of is stated that the signals were against the South-
forced off, iTer.
metals. It
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