Giacomo Meyerbeer,German composer. Brother of the astronomer Wilhelm Beer and the playwright Michael Beer, he achieved early success as a pianist. After he studied vocal writing in Italy, his Italian operas were well received. In Paris from c. 1825, he undertook work on a libretto by Eugène Scribe, and his Robert le Diable (1831) was one of opera's greatest triumphs from its premiere. Three later grand operas also became part of the international repertoire: Les Huguenots (1836), Le Prophète (1849), and L'Africaine (1864). Richard Wagner's criticism of Meyerbeer's "desertion" of German music, tainted by jealousy and anti-Semitism, led to neglect of his music for many years, but Meyerbeer exercised unmistakable influence on both Giuseppe Verdi and Wagner himself. Meyerbeer was a man of independent means, a fact that enabled him to exercise considerable care over the composition of operas and the choice of appropriate singers and to exercise some control over the press.