 In his mature operas Meyerbeer selected stories which almost invariably featured as a major element of storyline a hero living within a hostile environment . Robert , Raoul the Huguenot , Jean the prophet , and the <unk> Vasco da Gama in L 'Africaine are all ' outsiders ' . It has been suggested that ' Meyerbeer 's choice of these topics is not accidental ; they reflect his own sense of living in a potentially <unk> <unk> 
