(205 years since the birth of Jacques Offenbach)
He was a composer, cellist and conductor of German origin, but he worked and died in France. Offenbach is one of the founders of operetta and a typical representative of romanticism in European classical music.
He bequeathed us over 100 operettas: “The Beautiful Elena”, “A Bridegroom at the Door”, “Orpheus in Hell”. His other operettas are “Bluebeard” (1866), “Parisian Life” (1866), “Duchess Gerolstein” (1867), “Pericola” (1868), “Madame Favre” (1878), “The Drummer’s Daughter” (1879 ). Among his most famous works is the opera The Tales of Hoffmann, which is his only opera and his last work.
He was born on June 20, 1819 in Cologne, Kingdom of Prussia, in the family of Isaac Eberst from Offenbach am Main. Isaac, the singer in the local synagogue, baptized his newborn son Jacob.
Isaac Eberst was a versatile person – bookbinder, translator, publisher, music teacher and composer. He settled in Cologne three years before the birth of his son. He was the first to notice the boy’s gift and became his first music teacher.
Little Jacob started playing the cello at the age of 12. His father decided to take him to Paris to study at the Conservatory there. But Jacob was not French, and that became a problem. The statutes of the Conservatory prohibited the admission of foreigners. But after hearing how this boy plays, the professors decide to make an exception and accept him to study the cello. Jacob, or Jacob, as the French pronounced his name, became Jacques. And with that name he will become famous.
The teacher of cello student Jacques Offenbach at the Paris Conservatory was the famous musician Luigi Cherubini, and his favorite composer was Hector Berlioz.
Due to financial difficulties, Jacques studied for only a few years, but this turned out to be enough for him to become a virtuoso who would play with pianists such as Anton Rubinstein, Franz Liszt, Felix Mendelssohn and other famous musicians. He eventually graduated from the Conservatoire and settled in Paris.
At first he played in individual concerts, and then he became an orchestrator at the Opéra-Comique in Paris. His big dream was to create a grand opera, but it would be a long time before that. The beginning of his career was difficult – theaters refused him work because he was young and unknown.
Offenbach teamed up with Friedrich von Flotow, and the two began playing together. The public likes them so much that they become famous and finally they are allowed to participate in the Parisian salons.
Offenbach will soon take over the Palais-Royal, but everything in order: Out of love for the daughter of a Spanish emigrant – Ermini d’Alquen, whom he wants to marry, he accepts Catholicism. Their marriage is harmonious and happy – the two live in understanding in for 36 years, four daughters were born to them.Offenbach was a faithful and loving husband and father.
In 1847, he was appointed conductor at the French Theatre. At that time he was almost obsessed with Lafontaine’s fables and created several light arias based on them.
They did not go unnoticed, and in 1850 they appointed him as a staff composer in the famous Moliere theater “Comedy Française”.
The time is coming when he will play together with Liszt and Mendelssohn, and Paris will remain his permanent home. Offenbach became director (and later owner) of the theater “Bouffes-Parisiens” on the Champs-Élysées.
The year 1855 is considered the birth of the operetta genre.
In the theater, Offenbach already had complete freedom to do whatever he wanted – he was a composer, a stage director, a librettist, a conductor. He saturates the performances with an atmosphere of gaiety, but also of witty sarcasm. His performances are very popular.
When William Thackeray arrived in Paris, he said that he was very intrigued by the fact that “all Paris was singing Offenbach’s tunes”.
After watching one of the performances in his theater, he said: “If anything has a future in modern French theater, it is Offenbach.”
In 1858, Jacques Offenbach staged the operetta “Orpheus in Hell” in the theater. Its success was so great that its production was played 288 consecutive performances, and for the next 20 years, in Paris alone – as many as 900 times. After her, Offenbach wrote “The Beautiful Elena” (1864), “Bluebeard” (1866), “Parisian Life” (1866), “Duchess Gerolstein” (1867), “Pericola” (1868) and many other operettas that brought worldwide glory to its author.
In 1867, at the World Exhibition in Paris, he had to compete with Johann Strauss-son, who was visiting the French capital, but Offenbach’s fame was already truly worldwide.
And only three years later, his fate brought great bitterness. This is the time of the Franco-Prussian War. The composer was bullied by the French press into sympathizing with Germany, and the Germans accused him of treason. Offenbach goes on a tour of Europe, then returns to Paris with fear in his heart. He was aware that attacks and insults awaited him there.
All the mortal sins are attributed to him – that he undermines the national idea, that he mocks the monarchy, religion and the army.
His bitter enemies narrow-mindedly preferred not to perceive sarcasm in his works as artistic artistry and continued to attack him.
In 1871, Offenbach was ruined. He had no choice but to leave France.
He left for America, where he resigned himself to giving garden concerts. His tour was a huge success in New York and Philadelphia, and he was able to recoup much of his losses.
Opera singer Richard Lewis (right) as Hoffman, with Heather Harper (left) as Antonia and Reri Grist (centre) as Olympia during rehearsals for the opera The Tales of Hoffmann by Jacques
He returns to France, hoping to restore his normal way of life and write new operettas. Everything experienced, however, worsened his health. He suffered from cardiovascular disease and asthma.
Overwork and stress took their toll, and the composer died at only 61.
His latest work is the opera “Hoffmann’s Tales”, based on the tales of E.T.A. Hoffman, whose premiere unfortunately did not live to see.
“Hoffmann’s Tales” remains unfinished. Composer Ernest Guiro completed it. From its Parisian premiere at the Opéra Comique on February 10, 1881, until today, the opera “Hoffmann’s Tales” is constantly on the posters of the largest opera houses in the world. Only its creator fails to see it!…
Jacques Offenbach is one of the most gifted composers of the 19th century, the founder (along with Hervé) of the operetta genre, a classic of French operetta. His works became a kind of satirical chronicle of his time.
Some critics have called him a “brilliant musical columnist” and an “opera buffa magician”.
His music is distinguished by lightness, grace, wit and inexhaustible melodic richness. Many musicologists pay special attention to its rhythm and consider it typical of modern genres such as waltz and cankana.
Offenbach died on October 5, 1880. He was buried in Montmartre Cemetery.
Photo: German-born composer Jacques Offenbach (1819 – 1880), known for his light and comic operas, plays the cello. Original artwork: Portrait by Lamlein/Getty Images
