Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880); DEU/FRA

Jacques Offenbach (1819–1880) was a German-born French composer and cellist who became the leading creator of Parisian operetta in the nineteenth century. Born Jakob Offenbach in Cologne, he moved to Paris as a teenager and studied briefly at the Conservatoire before working as a cellist. In 1855 he opened the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens, where his witty one-act stage works found an enthusiastic audience. His theatrical successes made him one of the most popular composers of the Second Empire.

Offenbach transformed operetta through brilliant melody, comic timing, social satire, and irreverent treatment of mythological and historical subjects. His most famous works include Orphée aux enfers, La belle Hélène, La vie parisienne, La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein, and La Périchole. His final opera, Les contes d’Hoffmann, remained unfinished at his death but became one of the enduring works of the international operatic repertory.

###

Offenbach, Jacques [Jacob] (b Deutz, nr. Cologne, 1819; d Paris, 1880). Ger.-Fr. composer, conductor, and cellist. Orig. surname Eberst, Wiener, or Levy: took name Offenbach because family came from Offenbach-am-Main. Son of cantor of Cologne synagogue. Studied Paris Cons. 1833-7, also playing vc. in Opéra-Comique orch. Cond. at Théâtre Français, 1849-55. From 1853 began to compose operettas, writing no fewer than 90 in the next quarter-cent. Man. of Théâtre Comte, renaming it Bouffes-Parisiens. The best of his lighter works, La Belle Hélène, Orphée aux Enfers, etc., symbolize the Fr. 2nd Empire, but his fame rests equally securely on his sole grand opera Les contes d'Hoffmann, on which he worked for many years. It was prod. after his death in a version rev. and largely orchestrated by Guiraud. Among his chief works are:

OPERAS: Die Rheinnixen (Vienna 1864); Les contes d'Hoffmann (The Tales of Hoffmann) (1877-80).

BALLET-PANTOMIME: Le Papillon (1860).

OPERETTAS: Barbe-bleue (1866); La Belle Hélène (1864); Les Bergers de Watteau (1865); Daphnis et Chloé (1860); Les Deux Aveugles (1855); Dragonette (1857); La Fille du tambour-major (1879); Genéviève de Brabant (1859, rev. 1875); La Grande Duchesse de Gérolstein (1867); Madame Favart (1878); Le Mariage aux lanternes (1857); Monsieur Choufleuri (1861); Orphée aux enfers (Orpheus in the Underworld) (1858, rev. 1874); La Périchole (1868, rev. 1874); Princesse de Trébizonde (1869); Robinson Crusoé (1867); La Vie parisienne (1866, rev. 1873; see also Gaîté parisienne); Pomme d'api (1873); Whittington and his Cat (1874).

Copyright © 1996 Oxford University Press - By permission of Oxford University Press

Recommended Oxford books

###

Read biography at allmusic.com.