Offenbach, Jacques
Offenbach, Jacques[Jacob].
ACHIEVEMENT (S): Creator of a type of light burlesque French comic opera known as the “operette.”
NICKNAME/ALIAS: Jacob
DATE & PLACE OF BIRTH: June 20th, 1819, Cologne, Germany.
DATE & PLACE OF DEATH AND AGE AT DEATH: October 5th 1880, Paris, France. Aged 61.
DISCIPLINE: Composer.
FIELD: Music.
LANGAUGE: German, French.
PARENTS: Father: Isaac Juda Eberst.
Mother: Marianne Rindskopf
SIBLINGS: Notable siblings were Julius (1815-80) and Isabella (1817-91). Julius (or Jules) was also a talented musician, who became a violin teacher and played for many years in his brother's orchestra at Les Bouffes-Parisiens and later conducted it.
SPOUSE: In 1844: Herminie d'Alcain.
CHILDREN: None known.
EDUCATION: Conservatoire of Music, Paris.
MAJOR WORK: “The Tales of Hoffmann.”
LIFE AND TIMES: In November 1833 Isaac, ambitious for both his sons, took them to Paris in search of further tuition and managed to obtain a place for Jacob, now aged fourteen, at the Conservatoire, under the directorship of Cherubini*. In 1835, Offenbach managed to get one or two temporary jobs in pit orchestras, before getting a steady engagement at the Opera-Comique. After leaving the orchestra in 1838, Offenbach met the young composer Friedrich von Flotow, through whom he gained entry to Paris Salons, where they jointly performed pieces for cello and piano.
During the 1840s Offenbach continued his career as a cello virtuoso, appearing in Paris in 1841 with Anton Rubenstein, and in Cologne in 1843 with Liszt* who was now becoming quite celebrated as a musician. In May 1844 he visited London, where he was continually compared to Paganini*. He began performing at concerts of the Musical Union with < performed with> Felix Mendelssohn*. Meanwhile, his attempts to get his stage works, including 'L'Alcove', accepted by the Opera-Comique were unsuccessful and back in Paris he was forced to arrange concerts of his own.
In 1850 Offenbach was appointed conductor at the Theatre Francais, but he continued to have little success in getting his stage works accepted. Encouraged by the success of Herve's theatre, the 'Folies-Nouvelles', Offenbach rented the tiny wooden Theatre Marigny in the Champs Elysees for the Exhibition season, calling it the 'Theatre des Bouffes-Parisiens'. With a hastily compiled programme of short comic pieces, it opened on July 5th 1855. The theatre was so small it could only seat fifty, guaranteeing only 1,200 francs from a full house, and so it was nicknamed the 'Bonbonniere' , the 'chocolate box’.
The theatre showed pantomimes, one-act works by Offenbach and musical plays by Louis Halevy among others. Their financial success allowed Offenbach to give up his post at the Theatre Francais and to transfer the 'Bouffes-Parisiens' to a larger, warmer theatre for the winter. The following summer he moved again to the Theatre Marigny, but in the winter of 1856, he settled permanently in the Theatre Comte.
Offenbach directed the theatre until 1866 and premiered most of his celebrated operettas, among them ‘Orpheus in the Underworld’ in 1859. Besides his own works, the repertoire included works of other composers, including Delibes*. In 1856 he ran a competition for young composers, attracting seventy-eight entrants. The winners of the competition were Bizet* and Lecocq, with their settings of 'Le Docteur Miracle'. The continuing success of the Bouffes then brought an invitation to London. The entire company, with Jules Offenbach as leader of the orchestra, opened an eight week season at St James's Theatre in May 1857. The audience included novelist Thackeray*, Tolstoy*, and Saint-Saens*
Initially, Offenbach's licence limited him to pieces for only two or three stage performers, but the loosening of restrictions gradually enabled him to produce more ambitious works. The two-act 'Orpheus' was a big success, and the scenery and costumes were partly designed by his friend Gustav Dore. This was Offenbach’s successful prototype of the larger scale operettas, but he continued to concentrate on one-act works.
In 1860 Offenbach became a naturalised Frenchman and in August 1861 was appointed a Chevalier of the Legion d'Honneur. The Offenbach’s were now at the centre of theatrical and musical social life in Paris and it had become a tradition, during Offenbach's conducting days, for Friday evenings to be party night at their home. On one of these occasions, in 1857, everyone went in fancy dress. Georges Bizet, the composer, was dressed as a baby and Leo Delibes as a soldier, and Gustav Dore entered walking on his hands.
Meanwhile, Offenbach's 'Operas Bouffes' had by now become established abroad, particularly in Vienna, at first in pirated versions, and then under his own direction. He produced operettas at Ems in Germany and an opera-ballet in Vienna, ‘Rhine Spirits’, in 1864. Returning to Paris in the same year, he produced his successful operetta 'La Belle Helene'. Other successes followed, including 'La Vie Parisienne', 'La Grande-Duchesse de Gerolstein', and 'La Perichole'. From 1872 to 1876 Offenbach directed the Theatre de la Gaiete and in 1874 he produced a revised and spectacular version of ‘Orphus’ and 'Le Perichole'. He was a poor businessman, however, and in 1874 went bankrupt.
He then composed music for a Christmas piece, 'Whittington', in 1874, for the Alhambra in London, and in an endeavour to make up some of his financial losses embarked on a trip to the USA for the World Exhibition of 1876. He gave some forty concerts in New York and Philadelphia, as well as conducting performances of 'La Vie Parisienne' and 'La Jolie Parfumeuse'.
The remaining years of his life were devoted to composition. In 1880 he was working on the score at the Pavilion Henri IV in St Germain, but in September his worsening health forced him to return to Paris. It was here that he died when the gout. His unfinished operetta, 'Belle Lurette', was completed by Delibes. His only grand opera, 'Tales of Hoffmann', based on three stories by the German E. T. A. Hoffmann*, remained unfinished at his death.
ASSESSMENT: One of the two composers of outstanding significance in popular music of the 19th century, and the composer of some of the most exhilarating and tuneful music ever written.
EXTRA CONNECTIONS: Smetana*?
ONELINER: Jacques Offenbach, French burlesque opera composer
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Gammond, Peter, Offenbach: His Life and Times, Tunbridge Wells: Midas Books, 1980.