Jacques Offenbach

Jeremy Tambling (University of Hong Kong)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.5.2.05: French Writing and Culture: The Nineteenth-Century , 1800-1900.
Vol. editors: David Elwyn Evans (University of St Andrews), Edward Forman (University of Bristol), Elisabeth Gerwin (University of Lethbridge), Nigel Harkness (University of Newcastle upon Tyne), Tim Unwin (University of Bristol), David Williams (University of Sheffield), Jennifer Yee (University of Oxford)

Dates

Born 20 Jun 1819
Died 5 Oct 1880
Activity 1850-1880

Places

Born in Germany
Active in France

Activities

Primary

Composer

Resources

Offenbach's Works

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Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880), born Jakob Ebst in Cologne in Germany, was composer of over a hundred one-act and full-length operettas for the Second Empire in Paris. He became a naturalised Frenchman in 1860 and a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur in 1861. He was the son of a popular musician, music teacher and synagogue cantor, Isaac Juda Eberst who changed his name to Offenbach, the place from which he came. Alongside his brother, Offenbach studied music in Paris, and played the cello in the Opera-Comique, the operatic home of French operas which used spoken dialogue, and which had originally opened in 1715 (and where his masterpiece, the

Contes d'Hoffmann

was premiered, posthumously, in 1881 – the only one of his works to have this honour). Early support for Offenbach came from…

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1924 words

Citation: Tambling, Jeremy. "Jacques Offenbach". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 18 July 2002 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5159, accessed 24 April 2024.]

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