The Origin of Modern Operetta

In the eighteenth century, the term operetta simply referred to a short opera. However, since the nineteenth century, the term has denoted a light theatrical work with spoken dialogue, dancing, and relatively simple music in a popular style. The composer who established modern operetta as an international genre was Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880).

Based in Paris, France, he composed mainly for the Bouffes-Parisiens, a theater that he founded in 1855, managed from 1855 to 1862, and remained associated with for many more years. His works are marked by lilting melodies, elegant stylings, brilliant characterizations, and delicious humor, both musical and verbal (his principal librettists were H. Crémieux, L. Halévy, and H. Meilhac).

Here is a list of Offenbach's principal operettas: Ba-ta-clan ("Paraphernalia," the title of a national anthem, 1855); Orphée aux enfers ("Orpheus in the Underworld," 1858, revised 1874); Barkouf (the name of a dog, 1860); Le carnaval des revues ("The Carnival of Revues," 1860); La belle Hélène ("The Beautiful Helen," 1864); Barbe-bleue ("Bluebeard," 1866); La vie parisienne ("The Parisian Life," 1866, revised 1873); La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein ("The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein," 1867); Robinson Crusoé (1867); and La Périchole (the name of a Gypsy singer, 1868, revised 1874).

Many of Offenbach's stage works are comic treatments of familiar subjects. Examples include Greek mythology (Orphée aux enfers, La belle Hélène), other literary material (Barbe-bleue, Robinson Crusoé), and contemporary society and politics (La vie parisienne, La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein).

One of his favorite techniques for creating a comic effect is to quote well-known melodies in incongruous surroundings. For example, amidst the comedy of Orphée aux enfers, he quotes the solemn "Che farò senza Euridice?" ("What Shall I Do without Eurydice?") from Gluck's opera Orfeo ed Euridice ("Orpheus and Eurydice," set, like Offenbach's work, in legendary times). In the mythological setting of La belle Hélène, Offenbach quotes the patriotic trio from Rossini's opera Guillaume Tell ("William Tell").

Also humorously incongruous is the sudden use of unexpected music styles. A famous example is the cancan for the gods in Orphée aux enfers. In La belle Hélène he sets "Un vile séducteur" ("A Vile Seducer") to a waltz tune.

Offenbach often parodies some forms of serious opera (a practice that infuriated many opera-loving contemporaries). For example, the finale of Ba-ta-clan pokes fun at Meyerbeer's opera Les Huguenots with ridiculous vocal imitations of trumpet fanfares. A sketch in Le carnaval des revues parodies Wagner's Tristan und Isolde and Tannhäuser and satirizes Wagner's own pretentiousness as the Composer of the Future.

Offenbach's scores have other bits of humor as well. In Ba-ta-clan he sets gibberish to music. In Barkouf he introduces comic parts for animals.

His works soon attained widespread popularity abroad, especially in Vienna, where he met Johann Strauss II, "the Waltz King," whom Offenbach encouraged to write operettas of his own. It was, in fact, mainly through the success of Offenbach's works that operetta became one of the dominant genres in Western music. Among the operetta composers who followed in his footsteps were Johann Strauss II in Austria, Arthur Sullivan (of Gilbert and Sullivan) in England, and Victor Herbert in the United States, where the operetta eventually metamorphosed into the twentieth-century musical.

During his lifetime Offenbach was often criticized by those who disapproved of his use of some of the "naughty" aspects of the French popular stage (such as suggestive language and sexy dances like the cancan). And high-music circles looked down on his light style.

Shortly after his death, his serious opera Les contes d'Hoffmann ("The Tales of Hoffmann," completed by Ernest Guiraud) premiered. The work became so popular among both audiences and music historians that Offenbach's lighter works received only moderate attention for more than half a century.

Finally, however, in the middle of the twentieth century, a renewed interest in classical operetta brought about revivals of his music in the international repertory. Today Jacques Offenbach's works are widely recognized as the principal force in the development of modern operetta.

Darryl Lyman. Great Jews in Music. Jonathan David Publishers (www.jdbooks.com).