Jacques Offenbach Free Sheet Music, Program Notes, Recordings and Biography

Detailed Biography

The Impresario of Parisian Pleasure In the glittering, gaslit world of Second Empire Paris, no name was more synonymous with spectacle, satire, and sheer, unadulterated fun than Jacques Offenbach. When his theater, the Bouffes-Parisiens, premiered Orpheus in the Underworld in 1858, it was an immediate scandal. The operetta mercilessly mocked the revered Greek myth, portraying the gods as petty, bored socialites. The explosive finale, a wild dance for the gods in hell called the "Galop Infernal," was decried by one critic as a "profanation of holy and glorious antiquity." The public, of course, went wild. That raucous gallop, soon to be known forever as the Can-Can, perfectly encapsulated Offenbach’s genius: it was cheeky, intoxicatingly energetic, and utterly irresistible. He wasn't just a composer; he was the master of ceremonies for an entire era, a musical showman who bottled the champagne-fueled spirit of Paris and sold it to the world.

From Cologne to the Conservatoire

He was born Jakob Eberst Offenbach on June 20, 1819, in Cologne, Prussia. He was the son of Isaac Juda Eberst, a bookbinder, music teacher, and cantor at the local synagogue, who had adopted the surname "Offenbach" after his native town of Offenbach am Main. Recognizing prodigious musical talent in his sons, Isaac gave them a rigorous education. Young Jakob, in particular, showed a phenomenal gift for the cello. By the age of nine, he was composing songs and playing in local taverns with his siblings.

Convinced his son's talent was destined for a grander stage, Isaac took the 14-year-old Jakob to Paris in 1833. Armed with a letter of introduction, he managed to secure an audition at the prestigious Paris Conservatoire with its famously curmudgeonly director, Luigi Cherubini. Cherubini initially refused, citing the school's rule against foreign students, but upon hearing the boy play, he made an exception, exclaiming, "You are the pupil of the cello!" Now known as Jacques Offenbach, he studied cello with the esteemed Vaslin and composition, though less formally, with Fromental Halévy. However, the academic rigor of the Conservatoire bored the restless young musician, and he left after only a year to make his own way in the vibrant musical world of Paris.

The Virtuoso and the Theater

Offenbach quickly established himself as one of the leading cello virtuosos of his day. His dazzling technique and charismatic stage presence made him a favorite in the fashionable salons of Paris. He joined the orchestra of the Opéra-Comique and performed alongside superstars like pianist Franz Liszt and violinist Anton Rubinstein. In 1844, he married Herminie d'Alcain, the daughter of a Spanish Carlist general, after converting to Catholicism to secure her family's blessing.

Despite his success as a performer, Offenbach’s true ambition lay in the theater. He began composing short, light pieces for the stage, but found the doors of the major Parisian theaters, which were controlled by strict state monopolies, closed to him. His early works were mostly relegated to entr'acte music or one-off performances. Frustrated but undeterred, he took a major step in 1850 by accepting the post of conductor at the renowned Comédie-Française. While the position gave him invaluable theatrical experience, he was still composing music for others’ productions. He yearned for his own stage.

His chance came in 1855, the year of the great Paris Exposition Universelle. With the city flooded with international visitors hungry for entertainment, Offenbach took a massive gamble. He leased a tiny wooden theater on the Champs-Élysées and named it the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens. The license limited him to one-act works with no more than four singers and no chorus. Working within these tight constraints, Offenbach produced a string of witty, charming, and musically sparkling one-act operettas that were a resounding success. He soon moved to a larger, more permanent theater where, with his license expanded, he could finally realize his grand ambitions.

King of the Second Empire

With his brilliant librettists, most notably Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy (the nephew of his former teacher), Offenbach created a new genre: the opéra-bouffe. These were not just light comedies with music; they were full-blown satires that poked fun at everything from classical mythology and grand opera to the political and social manners of the Second Empire under Napoleon III.

Orpheus in the Underworld (1858) was the breakthrough that made him an international celebrity. It was followed by a torrent of hits, including La belle Hélène (1864), a hilarious send-up of the Trojan War, Barbe-bleue (Bluebeard, 1866), and La Vie parisienne (Parisian Life, 1866), a fast-paced romp through the city's high and low life. His music was an irresistible blend of lyrical grace, comic timing, and dance rhythms that perfectly captured the era's frantic energy. The "Offenbachiade," as the craze was called, swept across Europe and the Americas. His influence was immense, inspiring composers like Johann Strauss II in Vienna to create his own operettas.

War, Decline, and a Final Masterpiece

The bubble of the Second Empire burst with the disastrous Franco-Prussian War of 1870. The frivolous, decadent atmosphere that had nurtured Offenbach's work vanished, replaced by a more somber and nationalistic mood. As a German-born composer, Offenbach was unfairly attacked by the press, and though he was a naturalized French citizen and a patriot, his popularity suffered. Tastes changed, and while he continued to compose, he never fully recaptured the pre-war magic.

Facing financial difficulties, he embarked on a tour of the United States in 1876 for the nation's Centennial celebration, conducting concerts in New York and Philadelphia. He was a sensation, though he found American culture both fascinating and bewildering. Upon his return, he focused all his remaining energy on a single, ambitious project he hoped would secure his legacy as a "serious" composer: a grand opera based on the fantastical stories of the German writer E. T. A. Hoffmann.

The Tales of Hoffmann was his obsession. He poured into it some of his most beautiful and dramatically potent music, weaving together three tales of the poet Hoffmann's failed loves, all thwarted by a recurring villain. Suffering from severe gout and knowing his time was short, he worked feverishly to complete it, telling his family, "I would be happy to see the premiere, but I don't think I will." He was right. Jacques Offenbach died on October 5, 1880, with his masterpiece still unfinished.

Legacy

The task of completing The Tales of Hoffmann fell to the composer Ernest Guiraud, who also composed the famous recitatives for Bizet's Carmen. The opera premiered in 1881 and was a triumph. It quickly entered the standard international repertoire, celebrated for its rich lyricism, psychological depth, and theatrical imagination. The "Barcarolle" ("Belle nuit, ô nuit d'amour") became one of the most beloved melodies ever written.

Jacques Offenbach left behind a dual legacy. He is the undisputed father of the operetta, the genre that would evolve into the modern musical, profoundly influencing generations of composers from Arthur Sullivan (of Gilbert and Sullivan) to the 20th century. But he was also more than a composer of light music. In The Tales of Hoffmann, he proved he was a master of pathos and romantic drama. From the high-kicking Can-Can to the haunting Barcarolle, Offenbach's music endures, a timeless monument to a composer who perfectly captured the joy, wit, and spectacle of his age.

Section 4: References and Further Reading

References and Further Reading

• Faris, Alexander. Jacques Offenbach. Faber & Faber, 1980.

• Harding, James. Jacques Offenbach: A Biography. John Calder Publishers, 1980.

• Yon, Jean-Claude. Jacques Offenbach. Translated by John W. Lamb, Scarecrow Press, 2000.

• Kracauer, Siegfried. Jacques Offenbach and the Paris of His Time. Translated by Gwenda David and Eric Mosbacher, Zone Books, 2002.