Born in Cologne in 1819, the son of a synagogue cantor, Jacques Offenbach came to Paris at fourteen to study the cello at the Conservatoire and first made his name as a cellist. In 1855 he opened his own theatre, the Bouffes-Parisiens, where he staged operettas that had all Paris laughing: Orpheus in the Underworld (1858), La Belle Hélène (1864), La Vie parisienne (1866). He died in Paris in 1880, four months before the premiere of his only grand opera, The Tales of Hoffmann, completed by Ernest Guiraud.
The catalogue presents the Barcarolle from that opera in the piano transcription by Renaud de Vilbac, published in 1881. The tune moves from one voice to two, in thirds and sixths, above a bass that rocks in six-eight: keep the left hand even and let the top line sing. The Infernal Galop from Orpheus in the Underworld, the “French can-can”, is played from the score for piano solo Heugel published in 1862: a bass and steady chords in the left hand, staccato notes in the right.
