# Jacques Offenbach



## Clouds Weep Snowflakes (Feb 24, 2019)

I recently came across this composer, and as he was a Romantic composer and that is my favorite period in Classical music (though I'll listen to any period), I understand he composed a lot of material for the cello (a good twist!), I don't have any CDs of his compositions. and so I downloaded some material via Spotify App on my mobile phone and...wow! This is a textbook for everything I like about the romantic period! I especially like the "ballet of the snowflakes", so much my grandfather who listened to it thought at first it was Tchaikovsky, one of my favorites as well, and oh my...he wrote no less than 98 Operettas?!

What other compositions by this composer do you recommend? What else do you think I'll like based on this? What CD recordings should I get? And what do you think about Jacques Offenbach?


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Offenbach's music is usually lively and witty and, at their best, there were librettos to match. Offenbach was prolific but relatively few of his works are performed today, but most that are can be considered evergreens. The core works in my opinion are:

_Orphée aux enfers_ [_Orpheus in the Underworld_] (1858, but revised later):
_La belle Hélène_ [_The Beautiful Helen_] (1864):
_Barbe-bleue_ [_Bluebeard_] (1865): 
_La vie parisienne_ [_Parisian Life_] (1865, but revised later):
_La Périchole_ (1868):
_Les contes d'Hoffmann_ [_Tales of Hoffmann_] (1880 - inc.):

I would check wiki for more details on not just Offenbach but these individual works.

As a starter, there is this CD which features Manuel Rosenthal's 20th century adaptations of Offenbach's music - if you like what you hear then you may well get to like the stage works:










An accomplished cellist, he also composed a decent concerto for that instrument, but it's a work I haven't heard for many years.

I can't really say which recordings are best as I only possess one for each work I have heard, but I have been more than happy with the following:





















Hope this helps.


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## Clouds Weep Snowflakes (Feb 24, 2019)

elgars ghost said:


> Offenbach's music is usually lively and witty and, at their best, there were librettos to match. Offenbach was prolific but relatively few of his works are performed today, but most that are can be considered evergreens. The core works in my opinion are:
> 
> _Orphée aux enfers_ [_Orpheus in the Underworld_] (1858, but revised later):
> _La belle Hélène_ [_The Beautiful Helen_] (1864):
> ...


What about "trip to the moon"? How good is that? The concept sounds awesome. is it performed appropriately?


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

I don't know about that one at all - as far as I am aware it has never been recorded in its entirety. The works I listed near the top of my reply are the only ones I've heard in some complete shape or form, and the images near the bottom represent the only ones I currently have on CD.


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## larold (Jul 20, 2017)

Offenbach, himself a master cellist, wrote many compositions for the instrument. The best one, in my opinion, is a concerto often called the "Military" concerto because of a martial theme in the first movement. There are about a half-dozen recordings; the ones from recent years claim to have the "entire" thing insofar as the older ones have a much shorter third movement. I bought this recording in the last few months and have been happy with both the performance and sound:









The downside is the discmate is a strange concerto by Friedrich Gulda, who was known in the 20th century as a classical pianist. The concerto is rather weird with a first movement that sounds like a TV show theme, a middle movement that is nothing but the cello, and the rest sounding more of less like a classical music concerto. It's interesting but probably won't wear well over time. For those not interested in something like that there are other good performances including Jerome Pernoo on an all Offenbach program though he has a narrow cello tone. Ofra Hornoy, a better cellist, recorded it for RCA in the 1990s and was first to do so.

Anyone that wants a taste of Offenbach can get it by finding this out of print recording that is full of Offenbach overtures, selections from operettas and other music. It's lots of fun, in pretty good sound, and very much in the spirit of the composer:


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## Zhdanov (Feb 16, 2016)

Clouds Weep Snowflakes said:


> What about "trip to the moon"? How good is that?


very good.











pity there's only a digitised copy of some VHS old cassette someone by chance had recorded.


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## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

I not only like the Tales of Hoffmann but his head too. 






Some of his music is like taking a bath in champagne!


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## Clouds Weep Snowflakes (Feb 24, 2019)

Thanks you for you suggetsions! Did Offenbach compose any vocal music, or only intrumental works? And how popular is he today?



Larkenfield said:


> I not only like the Tales of Hoffman but his head too.


XDDDD


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## paulbest (Apr 18, 2019)

some folks are saying they can die now as they have heard 2 angels singing.
and
*so this is how angels sing in heaven*
read the YT comments.


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## paulbest (Apr 18, 2019)

Clouds Weep Snowflakes said:


> What about "trip to the moon"? How good is that? The concept sounds awesome. is it performed appropriately?


Ok, I could not recall which composer it was about this *trip to the moon* piece i heard on the FM radio months back. i wqas like WOW, pretty cool imagination. 
I mean back then, i guess just at the turn of the past century, 1900, the moon was still a mystery, yet with telescopes, it was now within reach ,.
its a weird piece. and reflects the collective imaginations of mankind back in that age, of the moon and her mysterious night light. 
You know the bright city lights did not drown out the moon back then, so i imagine the moon light was a blessing for travelers at night.


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## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

Offenbach: my favourite Bach!

Here's a post I put up for his 200th birthday in June, with links to some of his best pieces:
Happy 200th birthday, M. Offenbach!

As @elgars ghost suggested, there are excellent versions of _Orphée aux enfers _and _La belle Hélène _conducted by Marc Minkowski. His _Grande duchesse de Gérolstein _is also terrific - and a good DVD.

For the other well-known ones: Plasson's _Vie parisienne_; Lombard's _Périchole_; Gardiner's _Brigands_. (There's a fun, very silly, filmed production on YouTube.)

Of the one-act operettas: _Ba-ta-clan _(set in China, where everyone turns out to be French in disguise), and _M. Choufleuri restera chez lui le..._ (with a giddily brilliant trio parodying Italian opera).

Opera Rara released the more serious, wistful _Fantasio_, and _Entre Nous_, a huge collection of excerpts from forgotten operas. (Plus _Robinson Crusoé_ and the pastiche _Christopher Columbus_, both in English.)

And have fun!


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## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

paulbest said:


> some folks are saying they can die now as they have heard 2 angels singing.
> and
> *so this is how angels sing in heaven*
> read the YT comments.


Oh my. They're beautiful.

First!


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Clouds Weep Snowflakes said:


> Thanks you for you suggetsions! Did Offenbach compose any vocal music, or only intrumental works? And how popular is he today?
> 
> XDDDD


https://nl.lmgtfy.com/


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## larold (Jul 20, 2017)

Offenbach has some enduring popularity though you won't often see his music in concert. My local university is performing Orpheus In the Underworld next year; I don't recall seeing that performed previously where I live.


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## reinmar von zweter (Feb 19, 2020)

Can I shoot it big? I consider Offenbach one of Rossini's greatest heirs in the comic genre. Try to listen to Brigands or even some of the shorter operettas like Bataclan.


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

reinmar von zweter said:


> Can I shoot it big? I consider Offenbach one of Rossini's greatest heirs in the comic genre. Try to listen to Brigands or even some of the shorter operettas like Bataclan.







Well said although O.P seems yo heft left the building.


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## DaveM (Jun 29, 2015)

Offenbach was a cellist and wrote a pretty good Cello Concerto. Listen to the barn-burner sequence starting after about 42:10:


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Lot of great names on this set:


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

June 17 th 1818 Charles Gounod, French opera composer


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