Jacques Offenbach

Jacques Offenbach (* June 20, 1819, Cologne, † October 5, 1880, Paris) was the inventor of the operetta. Born Jakob Offenbach, the son of a Jewish cantor, he began violin lessons as a child. Evidently gifted, the boy moved to Paris in 1833 and studied cello at the conservatory. He then worked as a cellist at the Opéra Comique, was introduced to the art of composition by Fromental Halévy, and became Kapellmeister at the Théâtre Français in 1850. Five years later, he founded his own stage, the "Bouffes Parisiens," which he managed as director, composer, and conductor until 1863. It was there in 1858 that "Orphée aux enfers" ("Orpheus in the Underworld") premiered as the prototype of the operetta, featuring the "Can-Can," one of the genre's most famous compositions. As the tastes of the Parisian public changed after the end of the Second Empire, Jacques Offenbach increasingly faced difficulties. A second attempt as a theater entrepreneur failed, and tours, such as one through the USA in 1876, flopped. Offenbach became impoverished, fell ill, and died in 1880 during rehearsals for his late masterpiece "Les contes d’Hoffmann" ("The Tales of Hoffmann"), which modified the genre as a melancholic-satirical continuation of the operetta. The composer did not live to see the 1881 premiere of the unfinished work, which was completed by composer Ernest Guiraud. Jacques Offenbach created over 100 stage works. Characteristic of these was their consistently critical stance, which satirically challenged the bourgeois customs of Napoleon III's era. Among his most famous works, besides "Orpheus" and "Les contes d’Hoffmann," are "La belle Hélène" ("Beautiful Helen," 1864), "La vie Parisienne" ("Parisian Life," 1866), and "La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein" ("The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein," 1867). Even though Offenbach's star in Paris began to wane after 1870, he inspired rivals like Johann Strauss (son), who, influenced by his competitor, composed masterpieces such as "Die Fledermaus" (1874).