Jacques Offenbach

Early Life of Jacques Offenbach
Son of a Jewish cantor, Jacques Offenbach was born on the 20th of June, as Jakob Eberst, in Cologne, Germany. He moved to Paris at the age of 14 and entered the conservatoire.
Offenbach's music was known for his cheerful and exuberant music. His music career began with some years of experience as a solo and orchestral cellist, and a year study at the Paris Conservatoire.
Offenbach's Later Life
In 1850, aged 49, he became a theatre conductor, then got his own stage works performed. He started working on Tales of Hoffmann in the 1870s but left it unfinished when he died of a heart attack in Paris. He was 61. The music score was completed by Ernest Guiraud a year after his death, with a posthumous premiere presentation.
Composer of Operettas
Inspite the popularity of Tales of Hoffmann, Offenbach's most significant achievements and international success lie in the operettas (“little operas”) he wrote in the 1860s for Bouffes Parisiens (Parisian Comedy), a company he owned which staged shows in a small theatre he rented in fashionable Champs-Elysees.
Through Offenbach, the operetta became an established international genre evolving into the 20th-century, heavily influencing English composer Arthur Sullivan and Franz Lehar of the famous operetta The Merry Widow, among others.
Offenbach created more than hundreds of scores for the theatre, some of the noteworthy ones are Orphee aux enfers (Orpheus in the Underworld), best-known for its famous overture and 'can-can', La Belle Helene (Beautiful Helen), Barbe-Bleue (Bluebeard) and La Vie Parisienne (Parisian Life), La Grande-Duchesse de Gerolstein (Grand Duchess of Gerolstein) and Le Perichole.
Operettas by Offenbach

• Le marriage aux lanterns 1853
• Les Deux aveugles (The Two Blind Men) 1855
• Orphée aux enfers (Orpheus in the Underworld) 1858 (This was later revised)
• La Belle Hélene 1864
• Barbe-Blue (Bluebeard) 1866
• La Vie Parisienne 1866
• La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein (The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein) 1867
• La Périchole 1868
• Madame Favart (1878)

Jacques Offenbach Opera
Les Contes d'Hoffman (The Tales of Hoffmann), orchestration was completed posthumously by Ernest Guiraud 1880. This opera is based on the strange tales of E.T.A. Hoffmann, a German writer and composer. One of Offenbach's most popular and enchanting melodies "Barcarolle" is included.