Jacques Offenbach

Born in Cologne on June 20, 1819, and later making his career in Paris, Jacques Offenbach became one of the defining musical figures of 19th-century French theater. A gifted cellist as well as a composer, he built his reputation in a city that gave him room to thrive, eventually becoming closely associated with the comic operetta.

Offenbach wrote nearly 100 operettas, and his sharp sense of parody, rhythm, and stage timing helped shape the genre for generations of composers who followed. Works such as Orpheus in the Underworld, La belle Hélène, and La Périchole made him famous for music that could be funny, elegant, and mischievous all at once.

He is also remembered for The Tales of Hoffmann, a more ambitious opera left unfinished at his death in Paris on October 5, 1880. Even so, his music never disappeared from the stage, and his best-known pieces continue to bring energy, charm, and a dash of satire to opera houses and concert halls.