Biography
Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880), born in Cologne as Jakob Offenbach and naturalised French, was the inventor of modern operetta and the supreme satirist of the Second Empire. Offenbach founded the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens in 1855 and produced a stream of short, sharp musical satires that culminated in Orphée aux Enfers (1858), La Belle Hélène (1864), La Vie Parisienne (1866), and La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein (1867). His works parodied classical tragedy, imperial politics, and bourgeois pretension with melodies that have never lost their sparkle. Offenbach's final work, the fantasy opera Les Contes d'Hoffmann, was unfinished at his death and premiered posthumously in 1881. His can-can from Orphée aux Enfers became the defining sound of Belle Époque Paris. He died in Paris in 1880 from complications of gout and heart failure.
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