Anecdotes of Great Musicians/Anecdote 35
35.—MENDELSSOHN'S DISLIKE OF MEYERBEER.
Mendelssohn had a great aversion for the music of Meyerbeer. Mendelssohn's music was polished, elegant, scholarly, devoid of clap-trap or effects attempted for mere show. Meyerbeer's music, on the contrary, while containing much that was good and being especially effective in instrumentation, had much that was blatant, and that savored largely of the sensational. Both men had several points of personal resemblance. Both were of Jewish descent and inherited a Hebrew cast of countenance; both were of slender build, and they were accustomed to dress the hair in the same fashion.
The aversion held by Mendelssohn for Meyerbeer's music extended somewhat to Meyerbeer himself; and great was Mendelssohn's disgust if some one of his friends teased him on his resemblance to the detested composer. On one occasion, in Paris, after having been subject to some good-natured jokes about the similarity of his personal appearance to that of Meyerbeer, the composer of "St. Paul" and "Elijah" rushed off to the barber and had his hair clipped short to dispel the likeness. This, of course, only made him subject to a fresh lot of jokes on the hated resemblance.