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, and The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein.
Offenbach's final opera, Tales of Hoffmann, was more serious than his other works, reflecting perhaps 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 more than ninety pieces for the stage. His works include:
- Les deux Aveugles
- Le Nuit blanche
- Ba-ta-clan
- La Rose de Saint-Flour
- Le Savetier et le Financier
- Dragonette
- Le Vent du Soir ou L'horrible Festin
- Une Demoiselle en loterie
- Le Mariage aux lanternes
- Les deux Pêcheurs
- Orphée aux enfers (Orpheus in the Underworld)
- Les Vivandières de la Grande Armée
- Geneviève de Brabant
- Daphnis et Chloé
- Le Chanson de Fortunio
- Le Pont des soupirs
- Le Roman comique
- Les Bavards
- Lischen et Fritzchen
- Le Brésilien
- Jeanne qui pleure et Jean qui rit
- L'amour chanteur
- Die Rheinnixen
- La Belle Hélène (Fair Helen)
- Les Bergers
- Barbe-Bleue (Bluebeard)
- La Vie parisienne
- La permission de dix heures
- La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein (The Grand Duchess of Gérolstein)
- Robinson Crusoe
- L'Ile de Tulipatan
- La Périchole
- La Diva
- La Princesse de Trébizonde
- Les Brigands
- Boule de Neige
- Le Roi Carotte
- Fantasio
- Fleurette
- Les Braçonniers
- Pomme d'Api
- Bagatelle
- Le Violoneux
- La Boulangère a des écus
- Madame l'Archiduc
- La Créole
- Le Voyage dans la Lune
- Tarte à la Crème
- Pierrette et Jacquot
- La boîte au lait
- La Foire Saint-Laurent
- Madame Favart
- La Marocaine
- La fille du Tambour-Major
- Les contes d'Hoffmann (Tales of Hoffmann).
References and external links
- Works by Jacques Offenbach at Project Gutenberg
- http://www.naxos.com/composer/offenbac.htm
- http://www.lessontutor.com/bf_offenbach.html
- La Périchole plot summary
- http://www.jacques-offenbach.de (biography, catalogue of works, discography)
FARIS, Alexander. "Offenbach's Hoffmann" in Les Contes d'Hoffmann. EMI Records: 1965.