Jacques Offenbach was a German-born French composer, cellist, and impresario, renowned for his contributions to the development of operetta.
- Born: June 20, 1819, in Cologne, Prussia (now Germany)
- Died: October 5, 1880, in Paris, France
Offenbach showed early musical talent and was accepted as a student at the Paris Conservatoire at the age of 14. However, he found academic study unfulfilling and left after a year, but remained in Paris. From 1835 to 1855, he earned his living as a cellist, achieving international fame, and as a conductor. His ambition was to compose comic pieces for the musical theatre.
In 1855, finding the management of Parisโs Opรฉra-Comique company uninterested in staging his works, Offenbach leased a small theatre in the Champs-รlysรฉes. There, he presented a series of more than two dozen of his own small-scale pieces, many of which became popular. His first full-length operetta, โOrphรฉe aux enfersโ (โOrpheus in the Underworldโ), produced in 1858 with its celebrated can-can, was exceptionally well received and has remained his most played work.
During the 1860s, he produced at least eighteen full-length operettas, including โLa belle Hรฉlรจneโ (1864), โLa Vie parisienneโ (1866), โLa Grande-Duchesse de Gรฉrolsteinโ (1867), and โLa Pรฉricholeโ (1868). The risquรฉ humor and mostly gentle satiric barbs in these pieces, along with Offenbachโs facility for melody, made them internationally known.
Offenbach became associated with the Second French Empire of Napoleon III, who personally granted him French citizenship and the Lรฉgion dโhonneur. However, with the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, and the fall of the empire, Offenbach found himself out of favor in Paris due to his imperial connections and his German birth. Despite this, he remained successful in Vienna, London, and New York.
In his last years, he strove to finish โThe Tales of Hoffmann,โ but died before the premiere of the opera, which has entered the standard repertory in versions completed or edited by other musicians12. Offenbachโs legacy includes nearly 100 operettas and the influential opera โThe Tales of Hoffmann,โ which continues to be a part of the standard opera repertory.