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Jacques Offenbach

Jacques Offenbach is a German composer and cellist, naturalized Frenchman, born in Cologne on June 20, 1819, and died in Paris on October 5, 1880. His father Isaac Judas Ebert is an cantor in the synagogue of Cologne. Since he was born in the town of Offenbach-Main, near Frankfurt, he added his father's name to his birthplace in 1810, by virtue of a decree issued by Napoleon on July 28, 1808. As a young Offenbach , he proves his gift as a cellist who urges his father to provide his son's musical education in Paris. Offenbach studied cello at the Paris Conservatory, where he was enrolled in violation of the Regulations at 14 years of age. In parallel, he began a career of soloist-virtuoso. Unlike the strict discipline of the Conservatory, he left to enter the Opera Comic Orchestra, and finally, in 1847, he became the music director of Comedie Française. In 1855 he set up his own Bouff Parisian theater at the Champs-Elysées to perform his works. He works with the librettists Henry Meilak and Ludovic Alevi.

A rival of Rossini and Mozart, he is the creator of the French opera bouffa, which later blends with the operetta, a genre in which Offenbach is unsurpassed. The name operetta of the new genre was given by his rival, but still a friend, performance composer Erve. In the 1940s, Jacques composed about one hundred works, many of which became a classic in the lyrical repertoire, from "Orpheus in the Underworld" (1858) - his first great success thanks to his final gallop, to Hoffman's Stories, taking into account meanwhile the "Grand Duchess of Gerolstein", "Beautiful Helen", "Paris Life" and "The Robbers". Offenbach dies at age 61, on the night of October 4 to 5, 1880, from gout. This happens during the rehearsals of Hoffman's Stories - his operetta, which will be played 4 months later. He was buried in the cemetery of Montmartre, where his monument was made by the great French architect and sculptor Charles Garnier. Offenbach's stage productions reflect the joy of life and carelessness that fit into the mores of France during the Second Empire. Under the cover of humor, some of them are charged with criticism of political life ("Perissolka", "The King of the Carrot") And some others have been attacked as amoral (see the apology of " of three "in" The Beautiful Helen "), as incitement to marital infidelity, for example" Orpheus in the Underworld ". Eventually, Offenbach's comic operettas laughed at the presentation of human vices that were typical of his age, but today they are subject to comic exposing. Offenbach's work also includes excerpts in which he finds rarely accomplished by other composers perfection, although the bourbonous musical expression prevails in them. These passages often recreate, with a touching tenderness and fascinating jubilation, the passion of the heroines of his operettas, which are often adorable "coquettes" or toys of fate.

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Georges Bizet / 1838 - 1875 /

Georges Bizet was born in Paris on 25 October 1838, died in Bujaval on June 3, 1875, and was buried in the Per-Lachaise cemetery. Alexander-Cesar-Leopold Bizet was born on 26 Tour-d'Overne Street in Paris. On 16 March 1840, he was baptized and became Georges Bizet. His father is a co-operative and his mother is a pianist. His uncle François Deltsart is a singing professor known throughout Europe. Georges presents his talents in the field of music and goes to the Paris Consortium in 9 years. There he received many awards - solo, piano, fugue and organ. In 1856, his operetta "Doctor Miracle" (completed April 9, 1857) received the first prize at the operetta competition, organized by Jacques Offenbach. That same year Bizet won the Grand Prix of Rome for composing music. During his stay at the French Academy in Rome / Villa Medici / he began to write his first works: "Don Procopio" (Italian opera bouffe), "Symphony in ut", "Ossian Hunt" / Overture / of the Emir "(one-act opera-buff) Returning to France, he relies on teaching and composing music. In 1869 he married Genevieve Alevi, the daughter of his music teacher Jacques Fromantal Alevi. From her acquires son Jacques (1872 - 1922).

On March 3, 1875, on the premiere of his opera Carmen, he received the highest French honors - the Order of the Legion of Honor. On May 29, 1875, he decided to bathe in the Seine River near Bujival, but the water was still ice-cold. On the following day, he suffered an attack of acute articular rheumatism. On June 1 there are complications of his illness. On the night of June 2 to 3, his health is sharply worse, and he died of a heart attack at the age of 37. His Carmen Opera is actually a musical adaptation of the novel by Prosper Merrime, one of the most frequently presented romantic operas to date in the world. It is composed on 1 200 sheets, during the editing of Bizze gets the first crisis of articular rheumatism. Despite the relatively cold reception in France, where the plot is considered too "immoral" for the lyrical scene, the success of the opera in Europe is incredibly fast after the death of the author. Among the most jealous defenders of Bizet's opera are the Germans Wagner, Brahms and Nietzsche. Bizet's "Symphony in Wise" was rediscovered only in 1933 by American musicologist Parker in the archives of the Paris Conservatory. Two years later, Conductor Felix Weingpartner performed it in Basel and was recorded on a plate in the famous His Master Voice company in 1937, performing the London Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Sir Hamilton Harti.

Part one - The music in France during the Romantic era - Louis-Hector Berlioz