Jacques Offenbach biography

Profile

Born in 1819, Jacques Offenbach was a German-born French composer of the Romantic era. He created a new type French comic opera called the operette, a style which combined political satire with grand opera parodies. His Orpheus in the Underworld and La belle Helene were tremendously popular in France and the English-speaking world during the 1850s and 1860s. His work remains in opera's repertory.