Jacques Offenbach Obituary

Jacques Offenbach was a German-born French composer, cellist, and impresario of the Romantic period.

He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas from the 1850s to the 1870s, and his uncompleted opera The Tales of Hoffmann.

During Offenbach’s lifetime, and in the obituary notices in 1880, fastidious critics (dubbed “Musical Snobs Ltd” by Gammond) showed themselves at odds with public appreciation.

In a 1980 article in The Musical Times, George Hauger commented that those critics not only underrated Offenbach but wrongly supposed that his music would soon be forgotten.

Jacques Offenbach Obituary

He became famous with small melodies and became the musical director of the Comédie française in 1847. He was the creator of the French opera bouffe.

Offenbach died a few months before the premiere of the opera which gave him the acknowledgment he was seeking, Les Contes d’Hoffmann (The Tales of Hoffmann) – one of the most performed French operas nowadays.

Jacques Offenbach composed several synagogue songs (Ashamnou, Tavo lefanecha…) written while his father was visiting him in Cologne. He also wrote at the age of 16 some waltzes with Jewish Patterns from the 15th century.