To the 200th anniversary from the birth of Jacques Offenbach

The founder of the operetta genre, an excellent columnist, “one of the greatest satirists in the history of music” (according to Ivan Sollertinsky),the author of the very same cancan – all this is Jacques Offenbach (1819–1880).

His work comprises operas, romances and vocal ensembles, and the most important  part of it is almost one hundred various operettas. It was Offenbach who lifted the operetta genre to a new level, extended its artistic range and brought satirical context to it. The composer deformed even famous mythological and historical plots, and they became a stinging burlesque to the cynical and depraved society of the Second Empire of his time.

Offenbach began to write theatrical and entertaining music almost right after graduating from the Paris Conservatory, when he was a cellist at the Opéra comique theatre and played at different leisure venues. In 1855, he founded his own theatre - Bouffes-Parisiens – where he was the director, composer, stage director and conductor. There hisOrphée aux Enfers operetta with its famous Galop infernal was premiered in 1858.

According to conductor Vasily Valitov, the theatrical concert dedicated to the 200th anniversary of the birth of Jacques Offenbach is “a festival of laughter, burlesque, wonderful music and dances”. The Novaya Opera’s soloists, choir and orchestra will perform excerpts from the opera Les contes d'Hoffmann, operettas Orphée aux Enfers, La belle Hélène, La Périchole to name a few.