Comic opera , sometimes known as light opera , is a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending and often including spoken dialogue.
162-474: Operetta is a form of theatre and a genre of light opera . It includes spoken dialogue, songs, and dances. It is lighter than opera in terms of its music, orchestral size, and length of the work. Apart from its shorter length, the operetta is usually of a light and amusing character. The subject matter may portray "lovers' spats, mistaken identities, sudden reversals of fortune, and glittering parties". It sometimes also includes satirical commentaries. "Operetta"
324-585: A Monastery (1940–1941, staged 1946), and Dmitri Shostakovich 's The Nose (1927–1928, staged 1930). Simultaneously, the genres of light music , operetta , musical comedy , and later, rock opera , were developed by such composers as Isaak Dunayevsky , Dmitri Kabalevsky , Dmitri Shostakovich (Opus 105: Moscow, Cheryomushki , operetta in 3 acts, (1958)), Tikhon Khrennikov , and later by Gennady Gladkov , Alexey Rybnikov and Alexander Zhurbin . The 21st century in Russian comic opera began with
486-408: A Philadelphia law forbidding entertainments on Sundays, he disguised his operetta numbers as liturgical pieces and advertised a "Grand Sacred Concert by M. Offenbach". " Dis-moi, Vénus " from La belle Hélène became a " Litanie ", and other equally secular numbers were billed as " Prière " or " Hymne ". The local authorities were not deceived, and withdrew authorisation for the concert at
648-500: A bookbinder and earned an itinerant living as a cantor in synagogues and playing the violin in cafés. He was generally known as " der Offenbacher ", after his native town, Offenbach am Main , and in 1808 he officially adopted Offenbach as a surname. In 1816 he settled in Cologne, where he became established as a teacher, giving lessons in singing, violin, flute, and guitar, and composing both religious and secular music. When Jacob
810-534: A cast of twenty principals, and a large chorus and orchestra. As the company was particularly short of money following an abortive season in Berlin, a big success was urgently needed. At first the production seemed merely to be a modest success. It soon benefited from an outraged review by Jules Janin , the critic of the Journal des débats . He condemned the piece for profanity and irreverence to Roman mythology:
972-526: A cellist at the Opéra-Comique . He was no more serious there than he had been at the conservatoire, and regularly had his pay docked for playing pranks during performances; on one occasion, he and the principal cellist played alternate notes of the printed score, and on another they sabotaged some of their colleagues' music stands to make them collapse in mid-performance. Nevertheless, the earnings from his orchestral work enabled him to take lessons with
1134-636: A cheat and a matchmaker , text by Alexander Ablesimov (1779), on a subject resembling Rousseau 's Devin , is attributed to Mikhail Sokolovsky . Ivan Kerzelli , Vasily Pashkevich and Yevstigney Fomin also wrote a series of successful comic operas in the 18th century. In the 19th century, Russian comic opera was further developed by Alexey Verstovsky who composed more 30 opera-vaudevilles and 6 grand operas (most of them with spoken dialogue). Later, Modest Mussorgsky worked on two comic operas, The Fair at Sorochyntsi and Zhenitba ("The Marriage"), which he left unfinished (they were completed only in
1296-455: A composer of popular light opera. Offenbach began the decade with his only substantial ballet score, Le papillon ("The Butterfly"), produced at the Opéra in 1860. It achieved what was then a successful run of 42 performances, without, as the biographer Andrew Lamb says, "giving him any greater acceptance in more respectable circles". Among other operettas in the same year, he finally had
1458-549: A conductor. His ambition, however, was to compose comic pieces for the musical theatre. Finding the management of Paris's Opéra-Comique company uninterested in staging his works, in 1855 he leased a small theatre in the Champs-Élysées . There, during the next three years, he presented a series of more than two dozen of his own small-scale pieces, many of which became popular. In 1858 Offenbach produced his first full-length operetta, Orphée aux enfers ("Orpheus in
1620-774: A contrast, he could compose songs of a simplicity, grace and beauty like the Letter Song from La Périchole , "Chanson de Fortunio", and the Grand Duchess's tender love song to Fritz: "Dites-lui qu'on l'a remarqué distingué" . Among other well-known Offenbach numbers are "Les oiseaux dans la charmille" (the Doll Song from The Tales of Hoffmann ); "Voici le sabre de mon père" and "Ah! Que j'aime les militaires" ( La Grande Duchesse de Gerolstein ); and "Tu n'es pas beau" in La Périchole , which Lamb notes
1782-563: A countermeasure to the continental operettas, commissioned Clay's collaborator, W. S. Gilbert , and the promising young composer, Arthur Sullivan , to write a short one-act opera that would serve as an afterpiece to Offenbach's La Périchole . The result was Trial by Jury ; its success launched the Gilbert and Sullivan partnership. "Mr. R. D'Oyly Carte's Opera Bouffe Company" took Trial on tour, playing it alongside French works by Offenbach and Alexandre Charles Lecocq . Eager to liberate
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#17327936264671944-539: A double-bass player, played by Hervé , shipwrecked on a cannibal island, who after several perilous encounters with the female chief of the cannibals makes his escape using his double-bass as a boat. Offenbach pressed ahead with plans to present his works himself at his own theatre and to abandon further thoughts of acceptance by the Opéra-Comique . Offenbach had chosen his theatre, the Salle Lacaze in
2106-515: A dozen hits, were Babes in Toyland (1903) and Naughty Marietta (1910). Others who wrote in a similar vein included Reginald de Koven , John Philip Sousa , Sigmund Romberg and Rudolf Friml . The modern American musical incorporated elements of the British and American light operas, with works like Show Boat and West Side Story , that explored more serious subjects and featured
2268-647: A favourite number in Britain as well as France and the basis for the Marines' Hymn in the US. The 1860s were Offenbach's most successful decade. At the beginning of 1860, he was granted French citizenship by the personal command of Napoleon III, and the following year he was appointed a chevalier of the Légion d'honneur ; this appointment scandalised those members of the musical establishment who resented such an honour for
2430-582: A friend of Offenbach. Lecocq and Offenbach took a dislike to each other, and their subsequent rivalry was not altogether friendly. Although the Bouffes-Parisiens played to full houses, the theatre was constantly on the verge of running out of money, principally because of what his biographer Alexander Faris calls "Offenbach's incorrigible extravagance as a manager". An earlier biographer, André Martinet , wrote, "Jacques spent money without counting. Whole lengths of velvet were swallowed up in
2592-495: A friend said that Hérminie "gave him courage, shared his ordeals and comforted him always with tenderness and devotion". Returning to the familiar Paris salons, Offenbach gradually shifted the emphasis of his work from being a cellist who also composed to being a composer who also played the cello. He had already published many compositions, and some of them had sold well, but now he began to write, perform and produce musical burlesques as part of his salon presentations. He amused
2754-505: A mixture of sentiment and humour, Offenbach's works were intended solely to amuse. Though generally well crafted and full of humorous satire and grand opera parodies, plots and characters in his works were often interchangeable. Given the frenetic pace at which he worked, Offenbach sometimes used the same material in more than one opera. Another Frenchman who took up this form was Charles Lecocq . The singspiel developed in 18th-century Vienna and spread throughout Austria and Germany. As in
2916-655: A musical genre around 1850 in Paris. In 1870, the centre for operetta shifted to Vienna when Paris fell to the Prussians. The form of operetta continued to evolve through the First World War . There are some common characteristics among operettas that flourished from the mid-1850s through the early 1900s, beginning with the French opéra-bouffe . They contain spoken dialogue interspersed between musical numbers, and often
3078-484: A performance in April 1860. Despite many great successes during the rest of Offenbach's career, Orphée aux enfers remained his most popular work. Gammond lists among the reasons for its success, "the sweeping waltzes" reminiscent of Vienna but with a new French flavour, the patter songs , and "above all else, of course, the can-can which had led a naughty life in low places since the 1830s or thereabouts and now became
3240-412: A piece presented by the Opéra-Comique , the three-act Barkouf . It was not a success; its plot revolved around a dog, and Offenbach attempted canine imitations in his music. Neither the public nor the critics were impressed, and the piece survived for only seven performances. Apart from that setback, Offenbach flourished in the 1860s, the successes greatly outnumbering the failures. In 1861 he led
3402-577: A place of evil repute to the righteous British householder.... A first effort to bridge the gap was made by the German Reed Entertainers. Nevertheless, an 1867 production of Offenbach's The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein (seven months after its French première) ignited the English appetite for light operas with more carefully crafted librettos and scores, and continental European operettas continued to be extremely popular in Britain in
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#17327936264673564-406: A polite fashion, as uninhibited as ever". In the 1859 season the Bouffes-Parisiens presented new works by composers including Flotow, Jules Erlanger, Alphonse Varney , Delibes , and Offenbach himself. Of Offenbach's new pieces, Geneviève de Brabant , though initially only a mild success, was later revised and gained much popularity; the comedy duet of the two cowardly gendarmes became
3726-464: A series of works for cello and piano. Although Offenbach's ambition was to compose for the stage, he could not gain an entrée to Parisian theatre at this point in his career; with Flotow's help, he built a reputation composing for and playing in the fashionable salons of Paris. Through contacts he made there he gained pupils. In 1838 the Théâtre du Palais-Royal commissioned him to compose songs for
3888-401: A simpler form of music. Many scholars have debated as to which composer should be credited as the inventor of operetta; Jaques Offenbach or Hervé. It is concluded that Hervé completed the groundwork, and Offenbach refined and developed the art form into the concept of operetta as we know it today. Therefore, "Offenbach is considered the father of French operetta – but so is Hervé." Hervé was
4050-505: A singer, composer, librettist, conductor, and scene painter. In 1842, he wrote the one act opérette , L'Ours et le pacha , based on the popular vaudeville by Eugène Scribe and X. B. Saintine . In 1848, Hervé made his first notable appearance on the Parisian stage, with Don Quichotte et Sancho Pança (after Cervantes ), which can be considered the starting point for the new French musical theatre tradition. Hervé's most famous works are
4212-750: A small string section of seven players. After moving to the Salle Choiseul he had an orchestra of 30 players. The musicologist and Offenbach specialist Jean-Christophe Keck notes that when larger orchestras were available, either in bigger Paris theatres or in Vienna or elsewhere, Offenbach would compose, or rearrange existing music, accordingly. Surviving scores show his instrumentation for additional wind and brass, and even extra percussion. When they were available he wrote for cor anglais , harp , and – exceptionally, Keck records – an ophicleide ( Le Papillon ), tubular bells ( Le carnaval des revues ), and
4374-427: A start on the orchestration. Ernest Guiraud, a family friend, assisted by Offenbach's 18-year-old son Auguste, completed the orchestration, making major changes as well as the substantial cuts demanded by the Opéra-Comique 's director, Carvalho. The opera was first seen at the Opéra-Comique on 10 February 1881. Offenbach also left his last comedy, Belle Lurette , unfinished; Léo Delibes orchestrated it and it
4536-482: A success in early 1866 and was quickly reproduced elsewhere. La Vie parisienne later in the same year was a new departure for Offenbach and his librettists; for the first time in a large-scale piece they chose a modern setting, instead of disguising their satire under a classical cloak. It needed no inadvertent boost from Janin but was an instant and prolonged success with Parisian audiences, although its very Parisian themes made it less popular abroad. Gammond describes
4698-1176: A tight integration among book, movement and lyrics. In Canada, Oscar Ferdinand Telgmann and George Frederick Cameron composed in the Gilbert and Sullivan style of light opera. Leo, the Royal Cadet was performed for the first time on 11 July 1889 at Martin's Opera House in Kingston, Ontario . The line between light opera and other recent forms is difficult to draw. Several works are variously called operettas or musicals, such as Candide and Sweeney Todd , depending on whether they are performed in opera houses or in theaters. In addition, some recent American and British musicals make use of an operatic structure, for example, containing recurring motifs, and may even be sung through without dialogue. Those with orchestral scores are usually styled "musicals", while those played on electronic instruments are often styled rock operas . Jacques Offenbach Jacques Offenbach ( / ˈ ɒ f ən b ɑː x / ; 20 June 1819 – 5 October 1880)
4860-528: A time when a run of 100 nights was considered a success. Albert de Lasalle , in his history of the Bouffes-Parisiens (1860), wrote that the piece closed in June 1859 – although it was still performing strongly at the box-office – "because the actors, who could not tire the public, were themselves exhausted". Among those who wanted to see the satire of the emperor was the emperor himself, who commanded
5022-508: A transatlantic style, and the presence of ragged marching tunes. Berlin operettas also sometimes included aspects of burlesque , revue , farce , or cabaret . Paul Lincke pioneered the Berlin operetta in 1899 with Frau Luna , which includes " Berliner Luft " ("Berlin Air"), which became the unofficial anthem of Berlin. His Lysistrata (1902) includes the song and tune " The Glow-Worm ", which remains quite popular internationally. Much later, in
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5184-401: A trio at local dance halls, inns and cafés, performing popular dance music and operatic arrangements. In 1833 Isaac decided that his musically talented sons Julius and Jacob (then aged 18 and 14) needed to leave the provincial musical scene of Cologne to study in Paris. With generous support from local music lovers and the municipal orchestra, with whom they gave a farewell concert on 9 October,
5346-534: A trip to Ems and Wiesbaden just before the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. He then went to his home in Étretat in Normandy and arranged for his family to move to the safety of San Sebastián in northern Spain, joining them shortly afterwards. Having risen to fame under Napoleon III, satirised him, and been rewarded by him, Offenbach was universally associated with the old régime: he
5508-424: A year. The conservatoire's roll of students notes against his name "Struck off on 2 December 1834 (left of his own free will)". Having left the conservatoire, Offenbach was free from the stern academicism of Cherubini's curriculum, but as the biographer James Harding writes, "he was free, also, to starve". He secured a few temporary jobs in theatre orchestras before gaining a permanent appointment in 1835 as
5670-573: Is Leon Jessel 's extremely popular 1917 Schwarzwaldmädel ( Black Forest Girl ). These bucolic, nostalgic, home-loving operettas were officially preferred over Berlin-style operettas after 1933, when the Nazis came to power and instituted the Reichsmusikkammer (State Music Institute), which deprecated and banned "decadent" music like jazz and similar "foreign" musical forms. In the beginning of twenty-first century, German revival of operetta
5832-561: Is at our gates." La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein was followed by a quick succession of modest successes. In 1867 he produced Robinson Crusoé and a revised version of Geneviève de Brabant ; in 1868, Le château à Toto , L'île de Tulipatan and a revised version of Le pont des soupirs . In October 1868 La Périchole marked a transition in Offenbach's style, with less exuberant satire and more human romantic interest. Lamb calls it Offenbach's "most charming" score. There
5994-555: Is by Elena Polenova, based on a folk-drama, Tsar Maksimilyan , and the work premiered on June 20, 2001, at the Mariinski Theatre , St Petersburg. Prize "Gold Mask, 2002" and "Gold Soffit, 2002". The Children of Rosenthal ( Дети Розенталя ), an opera in two acts by Leonid Desyatnikov , with a libretto by Vladimir Sorokin . This work was commissioned by the Bolshoi theatre and premiered on March 23, 2005. The staging of
6156-592: Is the Italian diminutive of "opera" and was used originally to describe a shorter, perhaps less ambitious work than an opera. Operetta provides an alternative to operatic performances in an accessible form targeting a different audience. Operetta became a recognizable form in the mid-19th century in France, and its popularity led to the development of many national styles of operetta. Distinctive styles emerged across countries including Austria-Hungary, Germany, England, Spain,
6318-678: The "Elfenchor" , described by the critic Eduard Hanslick as "lovely, luring and sensuous", which Ernest Guiraud later adapted as the Barcarolle in The Tales of Hoffmann . After December 1864, Offenbach wrote less frequently for the Bouffes-Parisiens, and many of his new works premiered at larger theatres. Between 1864 and 1868 Offenbach wrote four of the operettas for which he is chiefly remembered: La belle Hélène (1864), La Vie parisienne (1866), La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein (1867) and La Périchole (1868). Halévy
6480-640: The Gounod parody Le petit Faust (1869) and Mam'zelle Nitouche (1883). Jacques Offenbach is most responsible for the development and popularization of operetta—also called opéras bouffes or opérettes —giving it its enormous vogue during the Second Empire and afterwards. In 1849, Offenbach obtained permission to open the Théâtre des Bouffes Parisiens, a theatre company that offered programs of two or three satirical one-act sketches. The company
6642-783: The Prussian defeat in 1866 , operetta became the sign of a new age in Austria, marked by modernity and industrialization. The most significant composer of operetta in the German language was the Austrian Johann Strauss II (1825–1899). Strauss was recruited from the dance hall and introduced a distinct Viennese style to the genre. Strauss was highly influenced by the work of Offenbach, so much so that he collaborated with many of Offenbach’s librettists for his most popular works. His operetta, Die Fledermaus (1874), became
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6804-457: The leitmotif , used throughout to accompany the eponymous Docteur Ox (1877) and to parody Wagner in La carnaval des revues (1860). In his early pieces for the Bouffes-Parisiens, the size of the orchestra pit had restricted Offenbach to an orchestra of sixteen players. He composed for flute , oboe , clarinet , bassoon , two horns , piston , trombone , percussion (including timpani ) and
6966-513: The singspiel and the French model. Franz von Suppé is remembered mainly for his overtures. Johann Strauss II , the "waltz king", contributed Die Fledermaus (1874) and The Gypsy Baron (1885). Carl Millöcker a long-time conductor at the Theater an der Wien , also composed some of the most popular Viennese operettas of the late 19th century, including Der Bettelstudent (1882), Gasparone (1884) and Der arme Jonathan (1890). After
7128-427: The "comique" part of the genre name had become misleading: Georges Bizet 's Carmen (1875) is an example of an opéra comique with a tragic plot. The definition of "comique" meant something closer to "humanistic", meant to portray "real life" in a more realistic way, representing tragedy and comedy next to each other, as Shakespeare had done centuries earlier. With this new connotation, opéra comique had dominated
7290-416: The "first true Italian comic opera" – that is to say, it had everything: it was in standard Italian and not in dialect; it was no longer simply an intermezzo, but rather an independent piece; it had a real story that people liked; it had dramatic variety; and, musically, it had strong melodies and even strong supporting orchestral parts, including a strong "stand-alone" overture (i.e., you could even enjoy
7452-465: The 1855 exhibition which had helped him launch his composing career. The Parisian public and foreign visitors flocked to the new operetta. Sovereigns who saw the piece included King William of Prussia accompanied by his chief minister, Otto von Bismarck . Halévy, with his experience as a senior civil servant, saw the looming threat from Prussia; he wrote in his diary, "Bismarck is helping to double our takings. This time it's war we're laughing at, and war
7614-484: The 1860s and 1870s are described as rowdy and loud. Operetta was considered one of the major controversies about Italian music and culture between the 1860s and the 1920s. During that period, strong nationalistic undertones in Italy strived to unify its national identity. Recognizing operetta as a foreign genre, operetta was perceived as an art form that would contaminate Italian opera or illegitimately undermine its primacy on
7776-568: The 1860s and 1870s, including Les Cloches de Corneville , Madame Favart and others into the 1880s, often adapted by H. B. Farnie and Robert Reece . F. C. Burnand collaborated with several composers, including Arthur Sullivan in Cox and Box , to write several comic operas on English themes in the 1860s and 1870s. In 1875, Richard D'Oyly Carte , one of the impresarios aiming to establish an English school of family-friendly light opera by composers such as Frederic Clay and Edward Solomon as
7938-447: The 1860s, often being carried into the theatre in a chair. Now in failing health, he was conscious of his own mortality and wished passionately to live long enough to complete the opera, Les contes d'Hoffmann ("The Tales of Hoffmann"). He was heard saying to Kleinzach, his dog, "I would give everything I have to be at the première". Offenbach did not live to finish the piece. He left the vocal score substantially complete and had made
8100-414: The 1870s, with revivals of some of his earlier favourites and a series of new works, and undertook a popular US tour. In his last years he strove to finish The Tales of Hoffmann , but died before the premiere of the opera, which has entered the standard repertory in versions completed or edited by other musicians. Offenbach was born on 20 June 1819, as Jacob (or Jakob ) Offenbach to a Jewish family in
8262-431: The 1920s and 1930s, Kurt Weill took a more extreme form of the Berlin operetta style and used it in his operas, operettas, and musicals. It is arguable that some of Kurt Weill 's compositions could be considered modernist operetta. The Berlin-style operetta coexisted with more bourgeois, charming, home-loving, and nationalistic German operettas – some of which were called Volksoperetten (folk operettas). A prime example
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#17327936264678424-426: The 20th century). Pyotr Tchaikovsky wrote a comic opera, Cherevichki (1885). Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov composed May Night 1878–1879 and The Golden Cockerel 1906–1907. In the 20th century, the best examples of comic opera by Russian composers were Igor Stravinsky 's Mavra (1922) and The Rake's Progress (1951), Sergey Prokofiev 's The Love for Three Oranges (1919) and Betrothal in
8586-568: The 21st. The Tales of Hoffmann remains part of the standard opera repertory. Born in Cologne , Kingdom of Prussia , the son of a synagogue cantor , Offenbach showed early musical talent. At the age of 14, he was accepted as a student at the Paris Conservatoire ; he found academic study unfulfilling and left after a year, but remained in Paris. From 1835 to 1855 he earned his living as a cellist, achieving international fame, and as
8748-646: The Champs-Élysées. The location and the timing were ideal for him. Paris was about to be filled between May and November with visitors from France and abroad for the 1855 Great Exhibition . The Salle Lacaze was next to the exhibition site. He later wrote: In the Champs-Élysées, there was a little theatre to let, built for [the magician] Lacaze but closed for many years. I knew that the Exhibition of 1855 would bring many people into this locality. By May, I had found twenty supporters and on 15 June I secured
8910-625: The English stage from risqué French influences, and emboldened by the success of Trial by Jury , Carte formed a syndicate in 1877 to perform "light opera of a legitimate kind". Gilbert and Sullivan were commissioned to write a new comic opera, The Sorcerer , starting the series that came to be known as the Savoy operas (named for the Savoy Theatre , which Carte later built for these works) that included H.M.S. Pinafore , The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado , which became popular around
9072-411: The French opéra comique , the singspiel was an opera with spoken dialogue, and usually a comic subject, such as Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail (1782) and The Magic Flute (1791). Later singspiels , such as Beethoven's Fidelio (1805) and Weber's Der Freischütz (1821), retained the form, but explored more serious subjects. 19th century Viennese operetta was built on both
9234-588: The French language". A frequent characteristic of Offenbach's word setting was the nonsensical repetition of isolated syllables of words for comic effect; an example is the quintet for the kings in La belle Hélène : "Je suis l'époux de la reine/Poux de la reine/Poux de la reine" and "Le roi barbu qui s'avance/Bu qui s'avance/Bu qui s'avance." In general, Offenbach followed simple, established forms. His melodies are usually short and unvaried in their basic rhythm, rarely, in Hughes's words, escaping "the despotism of
9396-404: The French operatic stage since the decline of tragédie lyrique . The origins of French operetta began when comic actors would perform dances and songs to crowds of people at fairs on open-air stages. In the beginning of the 18th century these actors began to perform comic parodies of known operas. These performances formed operetta as a casual genre derived from opéra comique , while returning to
9558-777: The Gaiety produced fifteen of his works. At the Royalty Theatre , Richard D'Oyly Carte presented La Périchole in 1875. In Vienna, too, Offenbach works were regularly produced. While the war and its aftermath ravaged Paris, the composer supervised Viennese productions and travelled to England as the guest of the Prince of Wales . By the end of 1871 life in Paris had returned to normal, and Offenbach ended his voluntary exile. His new works Le roi Carotte (1872) and La jolie parfumeuse (1873) were modestly profitable, but lavish revivals of his earlier successes did better at
9720-637: The German city of Cologne , which was then a part of Prussia . His birthplace in the Großer Griechenmarkt was a short distance from the square that is now named after him, the Offenbachplatz . He was the second son and the seventh of ten children of Isaac Juda Offenbach né Eberst (1779–1850) and his wife Marianne née Rindskopf ( c. 1783 –1840). Isaac, who came from a musical family, had abandoned his original trade as
9882-705: The Mozart centenary celebrations in May 1856 as L'impresario ; it was popular with the public and also greatly enhanced the critical and social standing of the Bouffes-Parisiens . By command of the emperor, Napoleon III , the company performed at the Tuileries Palace shortly after the first performance. In a long article in Le Figaro in July 1856, Offenbach traced the history of comic opera. He declared that
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#173279362646710044-527: The Philippines, Mexico, Cuba, and the United States. Through the transfer of operetta among different countries, cultural cosmopolitanism emerged in the previous century. Operetta as a genre lost favor in the 1930s and gave way to modern musical theatre . Important operetta composers include Johann Strauss , Jacques Offenbach , Franz Lehár , and Francisco Alonso . The term operetta arises in
10206-593: The Salle Lacaze for the 1856, 1857 and 1859 summer seasons, performing at the Salle Choiseul in the winter. Legislation enacted in March 1861 prevented the company from using both theatres, and appearances at the Salle Lacaze were discontinued. Offenbach's first piece for the company's new home was Ba-ta-clan (December 1855), a well-received piece of mock-oriental frivolity, to a libretto by Halévy . He followed it with fifteen more one-act operettas over
10368-624: The Teatro de la Zarzuela de Madrid, but with little success and light attendance. In spite of this, in 1873 a new theater, the Teatro Apolo , was opened for zarzuela grande , which shared the failures of the Teatro de la Zarzuela, until it was forced to change its program to género chico . The first opera presented in Russia , in 1731, was a comic opera (or "commedia per musica"), Calandro , by an Italian composer, Giovanni Alberto Ristori . It
10530-615: The US. Offenbach became associated with the Second French Empire of Napoleon III : the emperor and his court were genially satirised in many of Offenbach's operettas, and Napoleon personally granted him French citizenship and the Légion d'honneur . With the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, and the fall of the empire, Offenbach found himself out of favour in Paris because of his imperial connections and his German birth. He remained successful in Vienna, London and New York. He re-established himself in Paris during
10692-779: The Underworld"), with its celebrated can-can ; the work was exceptionally well received and has remained his most played. During the 1860s, he produced at least eighteen full-length operettas, as well as more one-act pieces. His works from this period include La belle Hélène (1864), La Vie parisienne (1866), La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein (1867) and La Périchole (1868). The risqué humour (often about sexual intrigue) and mostly gentle satiric barbs in these pieces, together with Offenbach's facility for melody, made them internationally known, and translated versions were successful in Vienna, London, elsewhere in Europe and in
10854-495: The appearance of strong national schools in both nations. By the 1870s, however, Offenbach's popularity declined. The public showed more interest in romantic operettas that showed the "grace and refinement" of the late Romantic period. This included Messager 's operetta Véronique and Louis Ganne 's Les saltimbanques . The 20th century found French operetta even more out of favor as the international public turned to Anglo-American and Viennese operettas, which continued to develop
11016-602: The art form into the late Romantic era. Offenbach was unabashed about spreading operetta around the continent. In 1861, he staged some of his recent works at the Carltheater in Vienna , which paved the way for Austrian and German composers. Soon, Vienna became the epicenter of operetta productions. It is because of the Viennese operetta, not the French, that the term is used to describe a full-length work. Additionally, after
11178-727: The astonishing Violoncellist, performed on Thursday evening at Windsor before the Emperor of Russia , the King of Saxony , Queen Victoria , and Prince Albert with great success." The use of the German " Herr ", reflecting the fact that Offenbach remained a Prussian citizen, was common to all the British press coverage of Offenbach's 1844 tour. The ambiguity of his nationality sometimes caused him difficulty in later life when France and Prussia became enemies. Offenbach returned to Paris with his reputation and his bank balance both much enhanced. The last remaining obstacle to his marriage to Hérminie
11340-516: The auditorium; costumes devoured width after width of satin." Moreover, Offenbach was personally generous and liberally hospitable. To boost the company's finances, a London season was organised in 1857, half the company remaining in Paris to play at the Salle Choiseul and the other half performing at the St James's Theatre in the West End of London. The visit was a success, but did not cause
11502-530: The authorities of the Opéra-Comique remained unmoved. Offenbach found more encouragement from the composer, singer and impresario Florimond Ronger, known professionally as Hervé . At his theatre, the Folies-Nouvelles , opened in 1854, Hervé pioneered French light comic opera, or " opérette ". In The Musical Quarterly , Martial Teneo and Theodore Baker wrote, "Without the example set by Hervé , Offenbach might perhaps never have become
11664-611: The box office. He decided to go back into theatre management and took over the Théâtre de la Gaîté in July 1873. His spectacular revival of Orphée aux enfers there was highly profitable; an attempt to repeat that success with a new, lavish version of Geneviève de Brabant proved less popular. Along with the costs of extravagant productions, collaboration with the dramatist Victorien Sardou culminated in financial disaster. An expensive production of Sardou's La haine in 1874, with incidental music by Offenbach, failed to attract
11826-469: The celebrated cellist Louis-Pierre Norblin . He made a favourable impression on the composer and conductor Fromental Halévy , who gave him lessons in composition and orchestration and wrote to Isaac Offenbach in Cologne that the young man was going to be a great composer. Some of Offenbach's early compositions were played by the fashionable conductor Louis-Antoine Jullien . Offenbach and another young composer, Friedrich von Flotow , collaborated in 1839 on
11988-399: The censor fretting about the satire of the imperial court, and the manager of the theatre attempting to rein in Offenbach's extravagance with production expenses. Once again the success of the piece was inadvertently assured by the critic Janin; his scandalised notice was strongly countered by liberal critics and the ensuing publicity again brought the public flocking. Barbe-bleue was
12150-452: The centuries and ranges depending on each country's history with the genre. It is often used to refer to pieces that resemble the one-act compositions by Offenbach in contrast with his full length compositions, ‘opéra-bouffe’. Offenbach invented this art form in response to the French government's oppressive laws surrounding the stagings of works that were larger than one act or contained more than four characters. Operetta became recognized as
12312-442: The company hastened back to Paris. Meanwhile, among his operettas that season were the full-length Le pont des soupirs and the one-act M. Choufleuri restera chez lui le... . In 1862, Offenbach's only son, Auguste (died 1883), was born, the last of five children. In the same year, Offenbach resigned as director of the Bouffes-Parisiens, handing the post over to Alphonse Varney. He continued to write most of his works for
12474-451: The company in a summer season in Vienna. Encountering packed houses and enthusiastic reviews, Offenbach found Vienna much to his liking. He even reverted, for a single evening, to his old role as a cello virtuoso at a command performance before Emperor Franz Joseph . That success was followed by a failure in Berlin. Offenbach, though born a Prussian citizen, observed, "Prussia never does anything to make those of our nationality happy." He and
12636-562: The company, with occasional pieces first given at the summer season at Bad Ems . Despite problems with the libretto, Offenbach completed a serious opera in 1864, Die Rheinnixen , a hotchpotch of romantic and mythological themes. The opera was presented with substantial cuts at the Vienna Court Opera and in Cologne in 1865. It was not given again until 2002, when it was finally performed in its entirety. Since then it has been given several productions. It contained one number,
12798-465: The comtesse de Vaux's 200 guests with a parody of Félicien David 's currently fashionable Le désert , and in April 1846 gave a concert at which seven operatic items of his own composition were premiered before an audience that included leading music critics. The following year he staged his first operetta, the one-act L'Alcove . It had been written at the invitation of the Opéra-Comique , which had then failed to present it, and Offenbach mounted
12960-579: The development of both the West End in London and Broadway in New York. American audiences were first introduced to operetta through Gilbert and Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore in 1878 . American operetta composers included Victor Herbert , whose works at the beginning of the 20th century were influenced by both Viennese operetta and Gilbert and Sullivan. He was followed by Sigmund Romberg and Rudolph Friml . Nevertheless, American operetta largely gave way, by
13122-549: The director of the Comédie-Française , Arsène Houssaye , who appointed him musical director of the theatre in 1850, with a brief to enlarge and improve the orchestra. Offenbach composed songs and incidental music for eleven classical and modern dramas for the Comédie-Française in the early 1850s. Some of his songs became very popular, and he gained valuable experience in writing for the theatre. Houssaye later wrote that Offenbach had done wonders for his theatre, but
13284-554: The embodiment of everything superficial and worthless in Napoleon III's régime. La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein was banned in France because of its antimilitarist satire. Although his Parisian audience deserted him, Offenbach had by now become highly popular in London's West End. John Hollingshead of the Gaiety Theatre presented Offenbach's operettas to large and enthusiastic audiences. Between 1870 and 1872,
13446-468: The end of World War I, to musicals , such as the Princess Theatre musicals, and revues , followed by the musicals of Rodgers and Hart , Cole Porter , Irving Berlin and others. Another notable operetta in English is Candide by Leonard Bernstein . It was advertised as a “comic operetta.” Candide’s score in some ways was typical for its announced genre with some waltzes, but Bernstein added
13608-478: The first work worthy to be called opéra-comique was Philidor 's 1759 Blaise le savetier (Blaise the Cobbler), and he described the gradual divergence of Italian and French notions of comic opera, with verve, imagination and gaiety from Italian composers, and mischief, common sense, good taste and wit from the French composers. He concluded that comic opera had become too grand and inflated. His disquisition
13770-755: The following century, French operetta , with Jacques Offenbach as its most accomplished practitioner. The influence of the Italian and French forms spread to other parts of Europe. Many countries developed their own genres of comic opera, incorporating the Italian and French models along with their own musical traditions. Examples include German singspiel , Viennese operetta , Spanish zarzuela , Russian comic opera, English ballad and Savoy opera , North American operetta and musical comedy . In late 17th-century Italy, light-hearted musical plays began to be offered as an alternative to weightier opera seria (17th-century Italian opera based on classical mythology ). Il Trespolo tutore (1679) by Alessandro Stradella
13932-573: The format in England with their long-running collaboration during the Victorian era . With W. S. Gilbert writing the libretti and Sullivan composing the music, the pair produced 14 comic operas, which were later called Savoy Operas . Most were enormously popular in Britain, the U.S., and elsewhere. Gilbert, Sullivan, and their producer Richard D'Oyly Carte themselves call their joint works comic operas to distinguish this family-friendly fare from
14094-616: The four-bar phrase". In modulation Offenbach was similarly cautious; he rarely switched a melody to a remote or unexpected key, and kept mostly to a tonic – dominant – subdominant pattern. Within these conventional limits, he employed greater resource in his varied use of rhythm; in a single number he would contrast rapid patter for one singer with a broad, smooth phrase for another, illustrating their different characters. He often switched quickly between major and minor keys, effectively contrasting characters or situations. When he wished to, Offenbach could use unconventional techniques, such as
14256-606: The genre renewed vitality. Studying at the Prague Conservatory Lehár began as a theatre violinist and then took off as a composer in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. During this 1905, Lehár's Die lustige Witwe ( The Merry Widow ) paved a pathway for composers such as Fall , Oscar Straus , and Kálmán to continue the tradition of Operetta. Lehár was also one of the first composers who began to incorporate into film. [2] The Viennese tradition
14418-703: The genre was like in the 17th century. In the 18th century, the Italian operatic style influenced zarzuela . But beginning with the reign of Bourbon King Charles III , anti-Italian sentiment increased. Zarzuela returned to its roots in popular Spanish tradition in works such as the sainetes (or Entr'actes) of Don Ramón de la Cruz. This author's first work in this genre was Las segadoras de Vallecas ("The Reapers of Vallecas", 1768), with music by Rodríguez de Hita . Single act zarzuelas were classified as género chico (the "little genre" or "little form") and zarzuelas of three or more acts were género grande (the "big genre" or "big form"). Zarzuela grande battled on at
14580-480: The last minute. At Booth's Theatre , New York, Offenbach conducted La vie parisienne and his recent (1873) La jolie parfumeuse . He returned to France in July 1876, with profits that were handsome but not spectacular. Offenbach's later operettas enjoyed renewed popularity in France, especially Madame Favart (1878), which featured a fantasy plot about the real-life French actress Marie Justine Favart , and La fille du tambour-major (1879), which
14742-486: The latter incorporating dances, with chorus numbers and humorous scenes that are usually duets. These works are relatively short, and ticket prices were often low, to appeal to the general public. There are two main forms of zarzuela : Baroque zarzuela ( c. 1630 –1750), the earliest style, and Romantic zarzuela ( c. 1850 –1950), which can be further divided into the two subgenres of género grande and género chico . Pedro Calderón de la Barca
14904-439: The lease. Twenty days later, I gathered my librettists and I opened the " Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens " . The description of the theatre as "little" was accurate: it could hold an audience of at most 300. It was therefore well suited to the tiny casts permitted under the prevailing licensing laws: Offenbach was limited to three speaking (or singing) characters in any piece. With such small forces, full-length works were out of
15066-521: The libretto as "almost worthy of [W. S.] Gilbert ", and Offenbach's score as "certainly his best so far". The piece starred Zulma Bouffar , who began an affair with the composer that lasted until at least 1875. In 1867 Offenbach had one of his greatest successes. The premiere of La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein , a satire on militarism, took place two days after the opening of the Paris Exhibition , an even greater international draw than
15228-503: The management of the Opéra-Comique was uninterested in commissioning him to compose for its stage. The composer and critic Claude Debussy later wrote that the musical establishment could not cope with Offenbach's irony, which exposed the "false, overblown quality" of the operas they favoured – "the great art at which one was not allowed to smile". Between 1853 and May 1855 Offenbach wrote three one-act operettas and managed to have them staged in Paris. They were all well received, but
15390-538: The masters of his art." He is buried in the Montmartre Cemetery . In The Musical Times , Mark Lubbock wrote in 1957: Offenbach's music is as individually characteristic as that of Delius , Grieg or Puccini – together with range and variety. He could write straightforward "singing" numbers like Paris's song in La belle Hélène , "Au mont Ida trois déesses" [Three goddessess on Mount Ida]; comic songs like General Boum's "Piff Paff Pouf" and
15552-509: The mid-19th century, despite Giuseppe Verdi 's Falstaff staged in 1893. French composers eagerly seized upon the Italian model and made it their own, calling it opéra comique . Early proponents included the Italian Egidio Duni , François-André Philidor , Pierre-Alexandre Monsigny , André Grétry , François-Adrien Boïeldieu , Daniel François Auber and Adolphe Adam . Although originally reserved for less serious works,
15714-481: The mid-eighteenth-century Italy and it is first acknowledged as an independent genre in Paris around 1850. Castil-Blaze 's Dictionnaire de la musique moderne claims that this term has a long history and that Mozart was one of the first people to use the word operetta, disparagingly, describing operettas as "certain dramatic abortions, those miniature compositions in which one finds only cold songs and couplets from vaudeville". The definition of operetta has changed over
15876-421: The modest earnings from those lessons, supplemented by fees earned by both brothers as members of synagogue choirs, supported them during their studies. At the conservatoire, Jules was a diligent student; he graduated and became a successful violin teacher and conductor, and was premier violon of his younger brother's orchestra for several years. By contrast, Jacques was bored by academic study and left after
16038-436: The most famous musicians of the day, including Felix Mendelssohn , Joseph Joachim , Michael Costa and Julius Benedict . The Era wrote of his debut performance in London, "His execution and taste excited both wonder and pleasure, the genius he exhibited amounting to absolute inspiration." The British press reported a triumphant royal command performance ; The Illustrated London News observed, "Herr Jacques Offenbach,
16200-411: The most performed operetta in the world, and remains his most popular stage work. In all, Strauss wrote 16 operettas and one opera, most with great success when first premiered. Strauss's satire was often generic, unlike Offenbach who commented on real-life matters. Strauss's operettas, waltzes, polkas, and marches often have a strongly Viennese style, and his popularity causes many to think of him as
16362-527: The most popular form of staged entertainment in Italy from about 1750 to 1800. In 1749, thirteen years after Pergolesi's death, his La serva padrona swept Italy and France, evoking the praise of such French Enlightenment figures as Rousseau . In 1760, Niccolò Piccinni wrote the music to La Cecchina to a text by the great Venetian playwright, Carlo Goldoni . That text was based on Samuel Richardson 's popular English novel, Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded (1740). Many years later, Verdi called La Cecchina
16524-446: The musician who penned Orphée aux Enfers , La belle Hélène , and so many other triumphant works." Offenbach approached Hervé , who agreed to present a new one-act operetta with words by Jules Moinaux and music by Offenbach, called Oyayaye ou La reine des îles . It was presented on 26 June 1855 and was well received. Offenbach's biographer Peter Gammond describes it as "a charming piece of nonsense". The piece depicts
16686-519: The national composer of Austria. The Theater an der Wien never failed to draw huge crowds when his stage works were first performed. After many of the numbers the audience would call noisily for encores. Franz von Suppé , also known as Francesco Ezechiele Ermenegildo, Cavaliere Suppé-Demelli, was born in 1819 and his fame rivals that of Offenbach. Suppé was a leading composer and conductor in Vienna and most known for his operetta Leichte Kavallerie (1866), Fatinitza (1876), and Boccaccio (1879). Suppé
16848-422: The newer musicals, with each influencing the other. The distinctive traits of operetta are found in the musical theatre works of Jerome Kern , Richard Rodgers and Stephen Sondheim . Operetta was first created in Paris, France in the middle of the 19th century in order to satisfy a need for short, light works in contrast to the full-length entertainment of the increasingly serious opéra comique . By this time,
17010-445: The next three years. They were all for the small casts permitted under his licence, although at the Salle Choiseul he was granted an increase from three to four singers. Under Offenbach's management, the Bouffes-Parisiens staged works by many composers. These included new pieces by Leon Gastinel and Léo Delibes . When Offenbach asked Rossini 's permission to revive his comedy Il signor Bruschino , Rossini replied that he
17172-456: The noisy premieres of two works whose genre could be described as "opera-farce": Tsar Demyan ( Царь Демьян ) – A frightful opera performance . A collective project of five authors wrote the work: Leonid Desyatnikov and Vyacheslav Gaivoronsky from St. Petersburg , Iraida Yusupova and Vladimir Nikolayev from Moscow , and the creative collective "Kompozitor", which is a pseudonym for the well-known music critic Pyotr Pospelov. The libretto
17334-479: The opening programme, but the most popular work of the evening had words by Moinaux . Les deux aveugles , "The Two Blind Men", is a comedy about two beggars feigning blindness. During rehearsals there had been some concern that the public might judge it to be in poor taste, but it was not only the hit of the season in Paris: it was soon playing successfully in Vienna, London and elsewhere. Another success in 1855
17496-431: The opera was accompanied by juicy scandal; however it was an enormous success. England traces its light opera tradition to the ballad opera , typically a comic play that incorporated songs set to popular tunes. John Gay's The Beggar's Opera was the earliest and most popular of these. Richard Brinsley Sheridan's The Duenna (1775), with a score by Thomas Linley , was expressly described as "a comic opera". By
17658-491: The operas of Scarlatti, Pergolesi ( La serva padrona , 1733), Galuppi ( Il filosofo di campagna , 1754), Piccinni ( La Cecchina , 1760), Paisiello ( Nina , 1789), Cimarosa ( Il matrimonio segreto , 1792), and then the great comic operas of Mozart and, later, Rossini and Donizetti . At first, comic operas were generally presented as intermezzi between acts of more serious works. Neapolitan and then Italian comic opera grew into an independent form and became
17820-479: The overture as an independent orchestral piece). Verdi was also enthusiastic because the music was by a southern Italian and the text by a northerner, which appealed to Verdi's pan-Italian vision. The genre was developed further in the first half of the 19th century by Gioachino Rossini in his works such as The Barber of Seville (1816) and La Cenerentola (1817) and by Gaetano Donizetti in L'elisir d'amore (1832) and Don Pasquale (1843), but declined in
17982-415: The play Pascal et Chambord , staged in March 1839. In January 1839, together with his elder brother, he gave his first public concert. Among the salons at which Offenbach most frequently appeared, from 1839, was that of Madeleine-Sophie, comtesse de Vaux . There he met Hérminie d'Alcain, the fifteen-year-old daughter of a Carlist general. They fell in love, and in 1843 they became engaged, but he
18144-441: The principal characters, as well as the chorus, are called upon to dance, although the music is largely derived from 19th-century operatic styles, with an emphasis on singable melodies. Operetta in the twentieth century is more complex and reached its pinnacle in Austria and Germany. Operetta is a precursor of the modern musical theatre or the "musical". In the early decades of the 20th century, operetta continued to exist alongside
18306-457: The production himself as part of an evening of his works at the École lyrique . He seemed on the verge of breaking into theatrical composition when the 1848 revolution broke out, sweeping Louis Philippe from the throne and leading to serious bloodshed in the streets of the capital. Three hundred and fifty people were killed within three days. Offenbach hastily took Hérminie and their two-year-old daughter to join his family in Cologne. The city
18468-487: The public to the Gaîté, and Offenbach was forced to sell his interests in the Gaîté and to mortgage future royalties. In 1876 a successful tour of the US in connection with its Centennial Exhibition enabled Offenbach to recover some of his losses and pay his debts. Beginning with a concert at Gilmore's Garden before a crowd of 8,000 people, he gave a series of more than 40 concerts in New York and Philadelphia. To circumvent
18630-452: The question, and Offenbach, like Hervé, presented evenings of several one-act pieces. The opening of the theatre was a frantic rush, with less than a month between the issue of the licence and the opening night on 5 July 1855. During this period Offenbach had to "equip the theatre, recruit actors, orchestra and staff, find authors to write material for the opening programme – and compose the music". Among those he recruited at short notice
18792-544: The rest of his career. Lamb, following the precedent of Henseler's 1930 study of the composer, divides the one-act pieces into five categories: (i) country idylls; (ii) urban operettas; (iii) military operettas; (iv) farces; and (v) burlesques or parodies. Offenbach enjoyed his greatest success in the 1860s. His most popular operettas from that decade have remained among his best known. The first ideas for plots usually came from Offenbach, his librettists working along lines agreed with him. Lamb writes, "In this respect Offenbach
18954-411: The ridiculous ensemble at the servants' ball in La vie parisienne , "Votre habit a craqué dans le dos" ["Your coat has split down the back"]. He was a specialist at writing music that had a rapturous, hysterical quality. The famous can-can from Orphée aux enfers has it, and so has the finale of the servants' party ... which ends with the delirious song "Tout tourne, tout danse" . Then, as
19116-558: The risqué French operettas of the 1850s and 1860s. Their works, such as H.M.S. Pinafore , The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado , continue to enjoy regular performances throughout the English-speaking world. While many of these operas seem to be very light-hearted, works such as the Mikado were making political commentaries on the British government and military with one of the main topics being capital punishment which
19278-415: The risqué state of musical theatre and introduced short comic operas designed to be more family-friendly and to elevate the intellectual level of musical entertainments. Jessie Bond wrote, The stage was at a low ebb, Elizabethan glories and Georgian artificialities had alike faded into the past, stilted tragedy and vulgar farce were all the would-be playgoer had to choose from, and the theatre had become
19440-418: The schottische, gavotte, and other dances, and also entered the opera house with the aria “Glitter and Be Gay” Operetta was the first imported vocal genre in Italy. Since the 1860s, French and Viennese composers such as Offenbach , Hervé , Suppé , Strauss Jr and Lehár have significantly influenced the operatic tradition of Italy. The widespread popularity of foreign operetta in Italy reached its climax at
19602-430: The second half of the 19th century, the London musical stage was dominated by pantomime and musical burlesque , as well as bawdy, badly translated continental operettas, often including "ballets" featuring much prurient interest, and visiting the theatre became distasteful to the respectable public, especially women and children. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas German Reed , beginning in 1855, and a number of other Britons, deplored
19764-482: The sensation that Offenbach's later works did in London. In 1858, the government lifted the licensing restrictions on the number of performers, and Offenbach was able to present more ambitious works. His first full-length operetta, Orphée aux enfers ("Orpheus in the Underworld"), was presented in October 1858. Offenbach, as usual, spent freely on the production, with scenery by Gustave Doré , lavish costumes,
19926-766: The sole representatives of the genre surviving today. Only recently, some of these other English light operas have begun to be explored by scholars and to receive performances and recordings. In the United States, Victor Herbert was one of the first to pick up the family-friendly style of light opera that Gilbert and Sullivan had made popular, although his music was also influenced by the European operetta composers. His earliest pieces, starting with Prince Ananias in 1894, were styled "comic operas", but his later works were described as "musical extravaganza", "musical comedy", "musical play", "musical farce", and even "opera comique". His two most successful pieces, out of more than half
20088-476: The stage. It was not until the early twentieth century that Italian composers systematically engaged in writing operetta. Informational notes Citations Bibliography Further reading Light opera Forms of comic opera first developed in late 17th-century Italy. By the 1730s, a new operatic genre, opera buffa , emerged as an alternative to opera seria . It quickly made its way to France, where it became opéra comique , and eventually, in
20250-461: The summer and autumn of 1855 could not be expected to venture there in the depths of a Parisian winter. He cast about for a suitable venue and found the Théâtre des Jeunes Élèves , known also as the Salle Choiseul or Théâtre Comte , in central Paris. He entered into partnership with its proprietor and moved the Bouffes-Parisiens there for the winter season. The company returned to
20412-702: The term opéra bouffe for his full-length ones (though there are several one- and two-act examples of this type). It was only with the further development of the Operette genre in Vienna after 1870 that the French term opérette began to be used for works longer than one act. Offenbach also used the term opéra-comique for at least 24 of his works in either one, two or three acts. Offenbach's earliest operettas were one-act pieces for small casts. More than 30 of these were presented before his first full-scale " opéra bouffon ", Orphée aux enfers , in 1858, and he composed over twenty more of them during
20574-439: The term opéra comique came to refer to any opera that included spoken dialogue, including works such as Cherubini's Médée and Bizet's Carmen that are not "comic" in any sense of the word. Florimond Hervé is credited as the inventor of French opéra bouffe , or opérette . Working on the same model, Jacques Offenbach quickly surpassed him, writing over ninety operettas . Whereas earlier French comic operas had
20736-471: The theme was the legend of Orpheus and Eurydice , although Napoleon III and his government were generally seen as the real targets of its satire. Offenbach and his librettist Hector Crémieux seized on this free publicity, and joined in a lively public debate in the columns of the Parisian daily newspaper Le Figaro . Janin's indignation made the public agog to see the work, and the box office takings were prodigious. The piece ran for 228 performances, at
20898-405: The title role. Since her early success in his short operas, she had become a leading star of the French musical stage. She now commanded large fees and was notoriously temperamental, but Offenbach was adamant that no other singer could match her as Hélène. Rehearsals for the premiere at the Théâtre des Variétés were tempestuous, with Schneider and the principal mezzo-soprano Léa Silly feuding,
21060-520: The turn of the 20th century, Franz Lehár wrote The Merry Widow (1905); Oscar Straus supplied Ein Walzertraum ("A Waltz Dream", 1907) and The Chocolate Soldier (1908); and Emmerich Kálmán composed Die Csárdásfürstin (1915). Zarzuela , introduced in Spain in the 17th century, is rooted in popular Spanish traditional musical theatre. It alternates between spoken and sung scenes,
21222-721: The turn of the century, in particular with the success of La vedova allegra , which premiered in Milan in 1907. Italian operetta composers tended to stretch the definition of an "operetta" more than other nations in order to fit the beauty of Italian Romantic opera style. An example would be Giacomo Puccini , who developed his work in the realistic verisimo style, and would compose "operettas in three acts". Other notable composers of Italian operetta include Vincenzo Valente , Ruggero Leoncavallo , Pasquale Mario Costa , Pietro Mascagni , Carlo Lombardo , Enrico Toselli , Virgilio Ranzato and Giuseppe Pietri . The audiences of operetta during
21384-544: The two young musicians, accompanied by their father, made the four-day journey to Paris in November 1833. Isaac had been given letters of introduction to the director of the Paris Conservatoire , Luigi Cherubini , but had to persuade Cherubini even to give Jacob an audition. The boy's age and nationality were both obstacles to admission. Cherubini had several years earlier refused the twelve-year-old Franz Liszt admission on similar grounds, but he eventually agreed to hear
21546-535: The world. The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company continued to perform Gilbert and Sullivan almost continuously until it closed in 1982. The Gilbert and Sullivan style was widely imitated by their contemporaries (for example, in Dorothy ), and the creators themselves wrote works in this style with other collaborators in the 1890s. None of these, however, had lasting popularity, leaving the Savoy Operas as practically
21708-421: The young Offenbach play. He listened to his playing and stopped him, saying, "Enough, young man, you are now a pupil of this Conservatoire." Julius was also admitted. Both brothers adopted French forms of their names, Julius becoming Jules and Jacob becoming Jacques. Isaac hoped to secure permanent employment in Paris but failed to do so and returned to Cologne. Before leaving, he found several pupils for Jules;
21870-450: Was Le violoneux (The Village Fiddler), which made a star of Hortense Schneider in her first role for Offenbach. When she auditioned for him, aged 22, he engaged her on the spot. From 1855 she was a key member of his companies through much of his career. The Champs-Élysées in 1855 were not yet the grand avenue laid out by Baron Haussmann in the 1860s, but an unpaved allée . The public who were flocking to Offenbach's theatre in
22032-400: Was Ludovic Halévy , the nephew of Offenbach's early mentor Fromental Halévy . Ludovic was a rising civil servant with a passion for the theatre and a gift for dialogue and verse. While maintaining his civil service career he went on to collaborate (sometimes under discreet pseudonyms) with Offenbach in 21 works over the next 24 years. Halévy wrote the libretto for one of the pieces in
22194-511: Was Offenbach's last major song for Hortense Schneider. By his own reckoning, Offenbach composed more than 100 operas. Both the number and the noun are open to question: some works were so extensively revised that he evidently counted the revised versions as new, and commentators generally refer to all but a few of his stage works as operettas, rather than operas. Offenbach reserved the term opérette (English: operetta) or opérette bouffe for some of his one-act works, more often using
22356-455: Was a German-born French composer, cellist and impresario . He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s to the 1870s, and his uncompleted opera The Tales of Hoffmann . He was a powerful influence on later composers of the operetta genre, particularly Franz von Suppé , Johann Strauss II and Arthur Sullivan . His best-known works were continually revived during the 20th century, and many of his operettas continue to be staged in
22518-517: Was a contemporary to Strauss and composed over 30 operettas 180 farces, ballets and other stage works. Recently, though most of his works have been fallen into obscurity, many of them have been reprised within films, cartoons, advertisements and so on. Both Strauss and Suppé are considered to be the most notable composers of the Golden Age of Viennese operetta. Following the death of Johann Strauss and his contemporary, Franz von Suppé , Franz Lehár
22680-497: Was a preliminary to the announcement of an open competition for aspiring composers. A jury of French composers and playwrights including Daniel Auber , Fromental Halévy , Ambroise Thomas , Charles Gounod and Eugène Scribe considered 78 entries; the five short-listed entrants were all asked to set a libretto, Le docteur miracle , written by Ludovic Halévy and Léon Battu . The joint winners were Georges Bizet and Charles Lecocq . Bizet became, and remained,
22842-518: Was an early precursor of opera buffa . The opera has a farcical plot, and the characters of the ridiculous guardian Trespolo and the maid Despina are prototypes of characters widely used later in the opera buffa genre. The form began to flourish in Naples with Alessandro Scarlatti 's Il trionfo dell'onore (1718). At first written in Neapolitan dialect, these works became "Italianized" with
23004-463: Was an unforeseen theatrical development. Notable German operetta composers include Paul Lincke , Eduard Künneke , Walter Kollo , Jean Gilbert , Leon Jessel , Rudolf Dellinger , Walter Goetze and Ludwig Schmidseder . Offenbach's influence reached England by the 1860s. Arthur Sullivan , of the Gilbert and Sullivan duo, composed Cox and Box (1866) as a direct reaction to Offenbach's Les deux aveugles (1855). Gilbert and Sullivan solidified
23166-427: Was both well served and skilful at discovering talent. Like Sullivan , and unlike Johann Strauss II , he was consistently blessed with workable subjects and genuinely witty librettos." In his setting of his librettists' words he took advantage of the rhythmic flexibility of the French language, and sometimes took this to extremes, forcing words into unnatural stresses. Harding comments that he "wrought much violence on
23328-510: Was by far the most successful. It became the first repertory operetta and was staged hundreds of times across Europe and beyond. Offenbach's legacy is seen in operettas throughout the late 19th century and beyond by encouraging Strauss the Younger to bring the genre to Austria-Hungary. Offenbach also traveled to the US and England educating musicians on the more than 100 operettas he wrote during his lifetime. This international travel resulted in
23490-537: Was carried on by Oscar Straus , Carl Zeller , Karl Millöcker , Leo Fall , Richard Heuberger , Edmund Eysler , Ralph Benatzky , Robert Stolz , Leo Ascher , Emmerich Kálmán , Nico Dostal , Fred Raymond , Igo Hofstetter , Paul Abraham and Ivo Tijardović in the 20th century. In the same way that Vienna was the center of Austrian operetta, Berlin was the center of German operetta. Berlin operetta often had its own style, including, especially after World War I , elements of jazz and other syncopated dance rhythms,
23652-600: Was currently playing every evening in Europe in nine languages. In the USA, five companies were presenting it, and "the rush for tickets at the New Amsterdam Theatre" was likened to "the feverish crowding round the doors of a threatened bank". Stan Czech, in his Lehár biography, claims that by 1910 it had been performed "around 18,000 times in ten languages on 154 American, 142 German, and 135 British stages". The international embrace of operetta directly correlated with
23814-651: Was designed to entertain the public". Two other French composers, Robert Planquette and Charles Lecocq , followed Offenbach's model and wrote the operettas Les Cloches de Corneville ( The Bells of Normandy ) and La Fille de Madame Angot ( The Daughter of Madame Angot ). The two operettas were considered a major hit. The political limitations placed on Offenbach and Parisian theatre were gradually lifted, and operetta gained wide popularity. While Offenbach's earliest one-act pieces included Les deux aveugles , Le violoneux and Ba-ta-clan (all 1855) did well, his first full-length operetta, Orphée aux enfers (1858),
23976-466: Was experiencing its own nationalistic revolutionary upheaval and Offenbach found it expedient to change his forename back to the German while there. Returning to Paris in February 1849 Offenbach found the grand salons closed down. He went back to working as a cellist, and occasional conductor, at the Opéra-Comique , but was not encouraged in his aspirations to compose. His talents had been noted by
24138-406: Was followed by the comic operas of other Italians, like Galuppi , Paisiello and Cimarosa , and also Belgian / French composer Grétry . The first Russian comic opera was Anyuta (1772). The text was written by Mikhail Popov , with music by an unknown composer, consisting of a selection of popular songs specified in the libretto. Another successful comic opera, The miller who was a wizard,
24300-416: Was given at the Théâtre de la Renaissance on 30 October 1880. Offenbach died in Paris on 5 October 1880 at the age of 61. His cause of death was certified as heart failure brought on by acute gout. He was given a state funeral; The Times reported, "The crowd of distinguished men that accompanied him on his last journey amid the general sympathy of the public shows that the late composer was reckoned among
24462-456: Was joined as librettist for all of them by Henri Meilhac . Offenbach, who called them "Meil" and "Hal", said of this trinity: "Je suis sans doute le Père, mais chacun des deux est mon Fils et plein d'Esprit," a play on words loosely translated as "I am certainly the Father, but each of them is my Son and Wholly Spirited". For La belle Hélène Offenbach secured Hortense Schneider to play
24624-466: Was known as "the mocking-bird of the Second Empire ". When the empire fell in the wake of Prussia's crushing victory at Sedan in September 1870, Offenbach's music was suddenly out of favour. France was swept by violently anti-German sentiments, and despite his French citizenship and Légion d'honneur , his birth and upbringing in Cologne made him suspect. His operettas were now frequently vilified as
24786-432: Was not yet in a financial position to marry. To extend his fame and earning power beyond Paris, he undertook tours of France and Germany. Among those with whom he performed were Anton Rubinstein and in September 1843 in a concert in Offenbach's native Cologne, Liszt. In 1844, probably through English family connections of Hérminie, he embarked on a tour of England. There, he was immediately engaged to appear with some of
24948-419: Was pleased to be able to do anything for "the Mozart of the Champs-Élysées". Offenbach revered Mozart above all other composers. He had an ambition to present Mozart's neglected one-act comic opera Der Schauspieldirektor ( The Impresario ) at the Bouffes-Parisiens , and he acquired the score from Vienna. With a text translated and adapted by Léon Battu and Ludovic Halévy , he presented it during
25110-600: Was six years old his father taught him to play the violin; within two years the boy was composing songs and dances, and at the age of nine he took up the cello. As Isaac was by then the permanent cantor of the local synagogue, he could afford to pay for his son to take lessons from the well-known cellist Bernhard Breuer. Three years later, the biographer Gabriel Grovlez records, the boy was giving performances of his own compositions, "the technical difficulties of which terrified his master", Breuer. Together with his brother Julius (violin) and sister Isabella (piano), Jacob played in
25272-550: Was so successful that it led to the elongation of these sketches into an evening's duration. However, Offenbach's productions were bound by the police prefecture in Paris, which specified the type of performance that would be allowed: "pantomimes with at most five performers, one-act comic musical dialogues for two to three actors, and dance routines with no more than five dancers; choruses were strictly forbidden." These rules defined what came to be defined as operetta: "a small unpretentious operatic work that had no tragic implications and
25434-496: Was some critical grumbling at the change, but the piece, with Schneider in the lead, made a good profit. It was quickly produced elsewhere in Europe and both North and South America. Of the pieces that followed it at the end of the decade, Les brigands (1869) was another work that leaned more to romantic comic opera than to the more ebullient opéra bouffe . It was well received, but has been less often revived than Offenbach's best-known operettas. Offenbach returned hurriedly from
25596-750: Was still widely used at the time. English operetta continued into the 1890s, with works by composers such as Edward German , Ivan Caryll and Sidney Jones . These quickly evolved into the lighter song-and-dance pieces known as Edwardian musical comedy . Beginning in 1907, with The Merry Widow , many of the Viennese operettas were adapted very successfully for the English stage. To explain this phenomenon, Derek Scott writes, In January 1908, London’s Daily Mail claimed that The Merry Widow had been performed 450 times in Vienna, 400 times in Berlin, 350 times in St Petersburg, 300 times in Copenhagen, and
25758-444: Was the difference in their professed religions; he converted to Roman Catholicism, with the comtesse de Vaux acting as his sponsor. Isaac Offenbach's views on his son's conversion from Judaism are unknown. The wedding took place on 14 August 1844; the bride was seventeen years old, and the bridegroom was twenty-five. The marriage was lifelong, and happy, despite some extramarital affairs on Offenbach's part. After Offenbach's death,
25920-685: Was the first playwright to adopt the term zarzuela for his work entitled El golfo de las sirenas ("The Gulf of the Sirens", 1657). Lope de Vega soon wrote a work titled La selva sin amor, drama con orquesta ("The Loveless Jungle, A Drama with Orchestra"). The instruments orchestra was hidden from the audience, the actors sang in harmony, and the musical composition itself was intended to evoke an emotional response. Some of these early pieces were lost, but Los celos hacen estrellas ("Jealousies Turn Into Stars") by Juan Hidalgo and Juan Vélez, which premiered in 1672, survives and gives us some sense of what
26082-466: Was the heir apparent. Lehar is widely considered the leading operetta composer of the 20th century and his most successful operetta, Die lustige Witwe ( The Merry Widow ), is one of the classic operettas still in repertory. Lehár assisted in leading operetta into the Silver Age of Viennese Operetta. During this time, Viennese Censorship laws were changed in 1919. Lehár is most responsible for giving
26244-445: Was the most successful of his operettas of the 1870s. Profitable though La fille du tambour-major was, composing it left Offenbach less time to work on his cherished project, the creation of a successful serious opera. Since the beginning of 1877, he had been working when he could on a piece based on a stage play, Les contes fantastiques d'Hoffmann , by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré . Offenbach had suffered from gout since
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