 With the continuing delays in the production of Le prophète and L 'Africaine , Meyerbeer was now becoming subject to increasing sniping in Paris . In 1846 Meyerbeer began work on a new project with Scribe and Saint @-@ Georges , <unk> , but in the following year <unk> was sacked from the opera and the direction was resumed by Duponchel . As a consequence , Meyerbeer was at last able to stage Le prophète with a cast to his liking , ( including <unk> as <unk> ) , and it premiered on 16 April 1849 . Again Meyerbeer 's new opera was an outstanding success – despite the unusual feature of the lead female role being the hero 's mother , rather than his lover . Amongst those at the 47th performance in February 1850 was Richard Wagner , now an impoverished political exile ; the success of a work so fundamentally against his own operatic principles was one of the spurs to his <unk> anti @-@ Jewish <unk> of Meyerbeer and Mendelssohn , ' Das <unk> in der <unk> ' ( 1850 ) . 
