List of operettas by Jacques Offenbach

This is a complete list of the 98 operettas of Jacques Offenbach (1819–1880).

Subgenres

The stage works of Offenbach (with the two exceptions of the opéras Die Rheinnixen and The Tales of Hoffmann) are broadly referred to as 'operettas' in English references, even though only 16 of them were designated as opérettes by the composer. Offenbach called a further 8 opérette bouffe, and there is a single 'opérette fantastique'. There are 24 opéras comiques, and 24 opéras bouffes, together with 2 'opéras bouffes féeries'.

Other minor subgenres include opéra bouffon (5), bouffonnerie musicale (3), saynète (2) pièce d'occasion (2) and revue (2). Offenbach invented names for some individual works: 'anthropophagie musicale', 'chinoiserie musicale', 'comédie à ariettes', 'conversation alsacienne', 'légende bretonne', and 'légende napolitaine'. There are also one each of the following; 'fantasie musicale', 'opéra féerie', 'tableau villageois', and 'valse'.

List of operettas

Pastiche

Theatres in the English-speaking centres used music by Offenbach to create pasticcio during the 1860s and 70s. Many of these pieces were made to libretti completely unknown to Offenbach. Vienna also saw examples of re-use of his music, and the practice continued into the 20th century.^[6] Examples include:

• Cigarette, words by G. D'Arcy, 9 September 1876, Globe Theatre, London^[7]
• Forty Winks, an English version of Une nuit blanche
• Blush Rose, words by D'Arcy
• The Barber of Bath, words by Farnie
• Der Goldschmied von Toledo, mainly using music from Der Schwarze Corsar^[8]
• The Happiest Girl in the World, words by E. Y. Harburg, a 1961 Broadway musical
• Christopher Columbus, words by Don White, recorded in London in 1977 by Opera Rara

Le carnaval des revues and Les hannetons include pre-existing scores but were created under Offenbach and include some new music by him.^[9]

See also

• For Offenbach's opéras see Die Rheinnixen and Les contes d'Hoffmann.
• For Offenbach's other works, see List of compositions by Jacques Offenbach.

References

Notes

1. The information in the table is taken from Lamb 1992, pp. 655–658, unless otherwise noted.
2. Boosey and Hawkes page, retrieved 22 January 2009 According to the B&H page and Jean-Christophe Keck's website Archived 1 February 2014 at the Wayback Machine, the libretto is Méry's, the music by L'Épine and Offenbach. Keck's notes for his recording of the overture that the overture and most of the orchestration is in Offenbach's hand in the manuscript.
3. Keck, Jean-Christophe (translated by John Taylor Tuttle). Offenbach, an oeuvre boasting more than 600 works. Booklet essay for 'Ballade Symphonique', CD 476 8999, Universal Classics France, 2006.
4. Yon 2000, pp. 760–762
5. Elsom, H.E. "At his exercise", Le Concertographe, 28 June 2000 Archived 26 June 2003 at the Wayback Machine
6. Gänzl K. Jacques Offenbach. In: The Encyclopedia of the Musical Theatre. Blackwell, Oxford, 1994.
7. Gammond 1980, p. 147.
8. Premiered in Mannheim on 7 February 1919, and then in Vienna (1920), Edinburgh and Lemberg (1922). Listed in : Loewenberg A. Annals of Opera. London, John Calder, 1978.
9. Yon, Jean-Claude. Jacques Offenbach. Éditions Gallimard, Paris, 2000.

Sources

• Gammond, Peter (1980). Offenbach. London: Faber & Faber. ISBN 0-571-11147-5
• Lamb, Andrew (1992). "Offenbach, Jacques" in The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, ed. Stanley Sadie, vol. 3, pp. 653–658. London: Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-73432-7
• Yon, Jean-Claude (2000). Jacques Offenbach. [Paris]: Galimard. ISBN 978-2-07-074775-7.

External links

• Oper One list of works, retrieved 28 July 2011