Jacques Offenbach - Biography
Jacques Offenbach was born in Cologne Germany on June 25TH 1819 as Jacob Offenbach and died in Paris on October 5TH 1880. Though he lived in Germany until he was thirteen this son of a Jewish Cantor went to Paris in his early teens to train for a musical career. His primary training was a cellist and by the time he was fifteen was as a cellist at the Opera Comique. He earned quite a reputation as a virtuoso cellist and appeared in concerts with many of the famed musicians of the day including Flotow, Mendelssohn and Anton Rubinstein. His first compositions mainly cello potpourris from popular Operas came during this period. He converted to Catholicism in 1844 more out of practicality then conviction and married the Catholic Herminie D’Alcain. He returned to Germany briefly during the revolution of 1848 since his status as a foreigner could have put him in personal danger.
He returned to France in 1850 to become conductor of the Theatre Francais which was primary occupation during the next five years, he also wrote satiric songs that were performed in fashionable salons. In 1855 he opened a theatre named Bouffes Parisiens (Parisian fools) to present a series of Operettas. Initially they were only an act in length and contained almost as much spoken dialogue as music. Among these one actors were Ba-Ta-Clan, Madame Papillion, Les Duex Aveugles and Vent du Soir there were in fact thirty or more written in three and a half years. The first full length Operetta that he wrote is the very popular Orpheus and the Underworld which has the famous can- can theme that is used in nearly every old movie and cartoon about Paris night life.
Offenbach set the model for Gilbert and Sullivan by offering political and cultural satire disguised as allegory in Offenbach’s case as a plot occurring in ancient classical times. Offenbach wrote nearly 100 of these works and even though they have their share of self borrowing that is an amazing accomplishment in a twenty five year period. This great productivity gave rise to Offenbach being called the ‘Mozart of the Champs-Elysees’. Offenbach’s most famous Operettas from this period are La Belle Helene (1864),La Vie Parisienne (1866),The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein (1867), Robinson Crusoe (1867) and La Perichole(1869). His librettists on many of these were the famous team Halevy and Melihac who were later to write the libretto for Bizet’s Carmen.
The Second Empire under Emperor Napoleon the Third were rather prosperous times for France but when Germany defeated France in the 1870 Franco Prussian War France and particularly Paris were to encounter unprecedented bad times. Reactionary cultural critics felt that Offenbach’s satires on French life undermined morale and national pride. They were quick to point out that he was of German origin and a Jew Offenbach felt that he was personally in danger and moved to Spain until things improved in France. He and his family moved back to France towards the end of 1871 when things calmed down but the demand for his Operettas in the more subdued era were not as great. He had great popularity in England, Italy and Austria and he had many successful tours through out Europe. During the American Centennial in 1876 Offenbach was invited to America for a series of concerts that culminated in a gigantic concert in Boston (A point of interest is that the U.S. Marine Hymn (halls of Montezuma) music was supplied by a duet from an Offenbach Operetta Genevieve de Brabant).Offenbach’s amazing fecundity stated to slow down somewhat more because of the lack of theatrical opportunities then the slowing down of his musical invention. His most significant Operetta from the 1870’s were Madame Favart and La Fille Dutambour-Major and La Creole
Offenbach’s health was declining as he approached sixty and he had an ambition to written a full scale Grand Opera. His choice to write an opera about the fantastic tales written by the great German Writer/Composer of the early 19th Century E.T.A. Hoffmann. He worked with famed French librettist Jules Barbier to produce Les Contes d’Hoffmann (Tales of Hoffmann). Though there was well over three hours of music written for the score the work was nowhere close to a definitive version when Offenbach died in October 5th 1881. The New Orleans born composer Ernest Guiraund was commissioned to put together a performing version of Hoffman (he had already supplied the singing dialogue for Carmen after Bizet’s death). The performing history of Hoffmann is way too complex to delve into in this essay but even the celebrated Barcarolle was not originally written for Hoffmann. The work has always had mysterious connotation to it because of Offenbach’s death and a terrible fire at its Vienna premiere in 1881 that took nearly 500 lives. Offenbach had additional posthumous fame when conductor Manuel Rosenthal arranged pieces from various Operettas to produce The ballet Gaite Parisienne for the Monte Carlo Ballet in 1938.
Offenbach is a composer who has a handful of works that are greatly celebrated but whose vast majority of works are barely known. The old theatrical saying that nothing ages as quickly as satire holds true for many of Offenbach’s operatic worjs that would have a difficult time being staged these days. The Tales of Hoffmann in one of its many forms still holds the world’s stages. The celebrated Michael Powell movies of Tales of Hoffman still has a cult. Richard Wagner who despised Offenbach as the very epitome of the international Jew he ranted about had to admit that he envied his musical invention.
There are many fine Offenbach recordings particularly by singers Regine Crespin, Natalie Dessay, Sophie von Otter. Conductors such as Beecham, Plasson and Minkowski and Fiedler have made superb Offenbach recordings.