OFFENBACH, JACQUES (1819-1880)

This article appears in Volume V20, Page 16 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: NUM-ORC

OFFENBACH, JACQUES (1819-1880) , French composer of opera bouffe, was born at Cologne, of German Jewish parents, on the 21st of June 1819. His talent for music was developed at a very early age; and in 1833 he was sent to Paris to study the violoncello at the conservatoire, where, under the care of Professor Vaslin, he became a fairly good performer. In 1834 he became a member of the orchestra of the Opera Comique; and he turned his opportunities to good account, so that eventually he was made conductor at the Theatre Francais. There, in 1848, he made his first success as a composer in the Chanson de Fortunio in Alfred de Musset's play Le Chandelier. From this time forward his life became a ceaseless struggle for the attainment of popularity. His power of production was apparently inexhaustible. His first complete

work

WORK

, Pepito, was produced at the Opera Comique in 1853. This was followed by a crowd of dramatic pieces of a light character, which daily gained in favour with Parisian audiences, and eventually effected a complete revolution in the popular

taste

TASTE (from Lat. taxare, to touch sharply; tangere, to touch)

of the period. Encouraged by these early successes,

Offenbach

OFFENBACH
OFFENBACH, JACQUES (1819-1880)

boldly undertook the delicate task of entirely remodelling both the form and the style of the light musical pieces which had so

long

LONG, GEORGE (1800-1879)
LONG, JOHN DAVIS (1838– )

been welcomed with acclamation by the frequenters of the smaller theatres in Paris. With this purpose in view he obtained a lease of the Theatre Comte in the Passage Choiseul, reopened it in 1855 under the title of the Bouffes Parisiens, and night after night attracted crowded audiences by a succession of brilliant, humorous trifles. Ludovic Halevy, the librettist, was associated with him from the first, but still more after 1860, when Halevy obtained Henri Meilhac's collaboration (see HALgvv). Beginning with Les Deux Aveugles and Le Violoneux, the

series

SERIES (a Latin word from serere, to join)

Offenbach

OFFENBACH
OFFENBACH, JACQUES (1819-1880)

's operettas was rapidly continued, until in 1867 its

triumph

TRIUMPH (triumphus)

culminated in La Grande Duchesse de

Gerolstein

GEROLSTEIN

, perhaps the most popular opera bouffe that ever was written, not excepting even his Orpliee aux enfers, produced in 1858. From this time forward the success of Offenbach's pieces became an absolute certainty, and the new form of opera bouffe, which he had gradually endowed with as much consistency as it was capable of assuming, was accepted as the only one worth cultivating. It found imitators in

Lecocq

LECOCQ, ALEXANDRE CHARLES (1832– )

and other aspirants of a younger generation, and Offenbach's works found their way to every town in Europe in which a theatre existed. Tuneful, gay and exhilarating, their want of refinement formed no obstacle to their popularity, and perhaps even contributed to it. In 1866 his own connexion with the Bouffes Parisiens ceased, and he wrote for various
theatres. In twenty-five years Offenbach produced no less than sixty-nine complete dramatic works, some of which were in three or even in four acts. Among the latest of these were Le Docteur Ox, founded on a story by Jules Verne, and La Belle au lait, both produced in 1877, and Madame Favart (1879). Offenbach died at Paris on the 5th of October 1880.

End of Article: OFFENBACH, JACQUES (1819-1880)

If you wish, you can link directly to this article.

<a href="http://jcsm.org/StudyCenter/Encyclopedia/NUM_ORC/OFFENBACH_JACQUES_1819_1880_.html">
OFFENBACH, JACQUES (1819-1880)
</a>

(Previous)
OFFENBACH

(Next)
OFFENBURG

JCSM was founded in 1997 and exists to help the community and bring people into a life-changing and productive relationship with Jesus Christ. JCSM offers over 200,000 free web pages, including its weekly inspirational emails that were sent continuously for over a decade.

Jesus Christ Saves Ministries
P.O. Box 9297
San Diego, CA 92169
1-888-887-0417 or Email