Julia Werthimer acutely observes:

>>People complain about composers who make too much money, as if we can't get
>>out of our heads the picture of the pure-souled artist, the Muse's acolyte,
>>starving in his garret.  We conveniently forget about Beethoven, Brahms,
>>Verdi, Wagner, Puccini, and Richard Strauss.
>
>This set me thinking.  Of the six composers cited by Steve, four
>concentrated mainly on opera.  I wonder if, historically, opera composers
>have tended to make more money from their music than symphonic composers?
>Perhaps they tend to be better businessmen!

In general, composers who worked for the theater made more money than
composers who didn't.  We could add Meyerbeer, Delibes, Weill, Massenet,
Korngold, Stravinsky, and Bernstein, although the latter two made pots of
money from conducting gigs.  Same with Copland.

Steve Schwartz