You've heard of Richard Wagner, right? Hitler's favorite antisemitic composer? Of course, you have.

But have you heard of Giacomo Meyerbeer? (Pipe down, opera nerds. We're sure YOU have heard of Giacomo Meyerbeer. We're talking to the general public.) You haven't, right?

And yet, during his lifetime, Meyerbeer was often seen as superior to Wagner. So what happened? Why has he been relegated to relative anonymity?

Well, Wagner.

It all started out well: Meyerbeer was a supporter of Wagner, and even produced his first opera. The friendship didn't last, as the two had a falling out (something about Meyerbeer refusing to loan Wagner money). This led to Wagner starting a vicious antisemitic campaign against Meyerbeer that led to the latter's fall from grace. The Nazi takeover of Germany obviously didn't help, and Meyerbeer sunk to worldwide obscurity.

Heck, look at our website: we profiled the obviously goyishe Wagner back in 2010, and only now got to Meyerbeer...