See Also: Offenbach, Jacques(encyclopedia)
Offenbach am Main(tourism)
Offenbach am Main car rental(tourism)
Offenbach am Main airports(tourism)
Offenbach am Main flights(tourism)
Offenbach am Main doctors(health)
Offenbach am Main hotels list(tourism)
Offenbach am Main travel agency(tourism)
Offenbach am Main travel agent(tourism)
Offenbach am Main travel guide(tourism)

Offenbach, Jacques (sh)




orig. Jacob Offenbach

born June 20, 1819, Cologne
died Oct. 5, 1880, Paris, France

German-born French composer.

Son of a cantor, he studied at the Paris Conservatoire but had to leave for lack of funds. He first wrote theatre music as conductor of the Theatre-Fran?ais (from 1850); in 1855 he opened his own theatre, Bouffes-Parisiens, for which he wrote many celebrated one-act works. He began writing longer operettas and had a string of hits, including Orpheus in the Underworld (1858), La Belle Helene (1864), La Vie Parisienne (1866), and The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein (1867). Offenbach is credited with writing in a fluent, elegant style and with a highly developed sense of both characterization and satire. He spent his last three years on his only grand opera, The Tales of Hoffmann, which remained unfinished at his death and was first produced in 1881.