Giacomo Meyerbeer  (born Jacob Liebmann Beer; 5 September 1791 – 2 May 1864) was a German opera composer of Jewish birth and the most frequently performed opera composer during the nineteenth century. 

With his 1831 opera Robert le Diable and its successors, he gave the genre of grand opera 'decisive character'. His 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 Eugène Scribe and were enhanced by the up-to-date theatre technology of the Paris Opéra. They set a standard which helped to maintain Paris as the opera capital of the nineteenth century.

Born to a very wealthy Berlin family, Meyerbeer began his musical career as a pianist but soon decided to devote himself to opera, spending several years in Italy studying and composing.

At the same time as his successes in Paris, Meyerbeer, as a Prussian Court  Director of Music from 1832, and from 1843 as Prussian General Music Director, was also influential in opera in Berlin and throughout Germany.

Apart from around 50 songs, Meyerbeer wrote little except for the stage. The critical assaults of Wagner and his supporters, especially after Meyerbeer’s death, led to a decline in the popularity of his works; his operas were suppressed by the Nazi regime in Germany, and were neglected by opera houses through most of the twentieth century. In the 21st century, however, the composer's major French grand operas have started to reappear in the repertory of numerous European opera houses.

He died in Paris on 2 May 1864. Rossini, who, not having heard the news, came to his apartment the next day intending to meet him, was shocked and fainted. A special train bore Meyerbeer's body from to Berlin on 6 May, where he was buried in the family vault.

We are opening this show with his Coronation March from his 1849 opera Le Prophet.

It is also interesting looking back at the early September Contest, which is now the British Open and the early test pieces. There are several which are arrangements from Meyerbeer's operas.   The earliest one is Selections from L' Africaine in 1866, followed by Robert De Diable in 1868 and then Le prophet arranged by William Winterbottom in 1869, Dinorah arranged by Charles Godfrey for the 1873 contest. In 1887 Charles Godfrey also arranged the test piece L'Etoile du Nord

For the 1911, National Brass Band Championships Meyerbeer's work Les Huguenots was the test piece. This was his last work used at the two big contests of the time.