Musicians - Jacques Offenbach

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	Musicians - Jacques Offenbach

Jacques Offenbach (20 June 1819 – 5 October 1880), composer and cellist, was one of the originators of the operetta form, a precursor of the modern musical comedy. He was one of the most influential composers of popular music in Europe in the 19th century, and many of his works remain in the repertory.

Biography

Offenbach was born in Cologne, Germany and was the son of Isaac Juda Eberst, a cantor, bookbinder, music teacher and composer. His father was living at a time when the Napoleonic edict required that Jews had to take inheritable family names. An itinerant violinist, he adopted the name Offenbach since he was already known to his audiences as a native of Offenbach am Main called "der Offenbacher". His son received the name "Jakob Offenbach" at birth, though he changed it to Jacques when he settled in France.

Offenbach moved to Paris in 1833 to study the cello. He found employment playing cello in the orchestra of the Opéra Comique, and wrote several pieces for the instrument. In 1844, he converted to Catholicism and married Herminie de Alcain. He returned to Germany with his wife and daughter in 1848 to avoid revolutionary violence in France, but returned a year later to become the musician most closely associated with the reign of Louis Napoleon (III). In 1850 he became conductor of the Theatre Français, but in 1855 rented his own theatre, the Bouffes Parisiens on the Champs Élysées, and began a successful career devoted largely to operetta and opéras comiques until his death. His most popular works are still performed regularly today. He also wrote much dance music, especially in the can-can style. His best-known operettas in the English-speaking world are Orpheus in the Underworld, La vie parisienne, La belle Hélène, La Périchole, The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein and Gaîté Parisienne.

Offenbach's final opera, The Tales of Hoffmann, was more serious than his other works, perhaps reflecting the eternal wish of the clown to be taken seriously. It was still unfinished at his death in 1880, but was completed by his best friend Ernest Guiraud and premiered in 1881.

Offenbach is buried in the Cimetière de Montmartre, Paris, France.

Works

Offenbach wrote 97 complete works for the stage (of which 94 were performed). They are as follows (complete list):

L'alcôve
Blanche
La Duchesse d'Albe
Le trésor à Mathurin (revised as Le mariage aux lanternes)
Pépito
Luc et Lucette
Le décaméron, ou La grotte d'azur
Entrez, messieurs, mesdames
Un nuit blanche
Les deux aveugles
Le rêve d'une nuit d'été
Oyayaie, ou La reine des îles
Le violoneux
Madame Papillon
Paimpol et Périnette
Ba-ta-clan
Un postillon en gage
Tromb-al-ca-zar, ou Les criminels dramatiques
La rose de Saint-Flour
Les dragées du baptême
Le 66
Le financier et le savetier
La bonne d'enfant(s)
Les trois baisers du diable
Croquefer, ou Le dernier des paladins
Dragonette
Vent du soir, ou L'horrible festin
Une demoiselle en loterie
Les deux pêcheurs, ou Le lever du soleil
Mesdames de la Halle
La chatte metamorphosée en femme
Orphée aux enfers (Orpheus in the Underworld)
Le mari à la porte
Les vivandières de la grande-armée
Geneviève de Brabant
Le carnaval des revues
Daphnis et Chloé (operetta)
Barkouf (revised as Boule de neige)
Le chanson de Fortunio
Le pont des soupirs
M. Choufleuri restera chez lui le . . .
Apothicaire et perruquier
Le roman comique
Monsieur et Madame Denis
Le voyage de MM. Dunanan père et fils
Les bavards (also performed as "Bavard et Bavarde" and "Die Schwätzerin von Saragossa")
Jacqueline
La baguette (Fédia)
La leçon de chant électromagnétique
Il signor Fagotto
Lischen et Fritzchen
Fleurette (also performed as Fleurette, oder Trompeter und Näherin)
L'amour chanteur
Les fées du Rhin (also performed as Die Rheinnixen)
Les géorgiennes
Le fifre enchanté, ou Le soldat magicien
Jeanne qui pleure et Jean qui rit
La belle Hélène (The Fair Helen)
Coscoletto, ou Le lazzarone
Les refrains des bouffes
Les bergers
Barbe-bleue (Bluebeard)
La vie parisienne
La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein (The Grand Duchess of Gérolstein)
La permission de dix heures (also performed as Urlaub nach dem Zapfenstreich)
Robinson Crusoé
Le château à Toto
L'ile de Tulipatan
La Périchole
Vert-Vert
La diva
La princesse de Trébizonde
Les brigands
La romance de la rose
Moucheron
Le roi Carotte
Fantasio
Le corsaire noir (also performed as Der schwarze Corsar)
Les braconniers
Pomme d'api
La jolie parfumeuse
Bagatelle
Madame l'archiduc
Whittington (also performed as Le chat du diable)
Le hannetons
La boulangère a des écus
Le voyage dans la lune
La créole
Tarte à la crême
Pierrette et Jacquot
La boîte au lait
Le docteur Ox
La foire Saint-Laurent
Maître Péronilla
Madame Favart
La marocaine
La fille du tambour-major
Belle Lurette
Les contes d'Hoffmann (The Tales of Hoffmann)

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