 Despite performances of his <unk> <unk> und die <unk> ( God and Nature ) ( Berlin , 1811 ) and his early operas <unk> <unk> ( <unk> 's <unk> ) ( Munich , 1812 ) and Wirth und <unk> ( <unk> and Guest ) ( <unk> , 1813 ) in Germany , Meyerbeer had set his sights by 1814 on basing an operatic career in Paris . In the same year , his opera Die <unk> <unk> ( The Two <unk> ) , a version of Wirth und <unk> , was a disastrous failure in Vienna . Realizing that a full understanding of Italian opera was essential for his musical development , he went to study in Italy , enabled by the financial support of his family . He arrived in Italy at the beginning of 1816 , after visits to Paris and London , where he heard Cramer play . In Paris , he wrote to a friend , ' I go from museum to museum , library to library , theatre to theatre , with the restlessness of the <unk> Jew ' . 
