Jacques Offenbach

Jacques Offenbach started out life in Cologne, Germany in 1819 as Jakob Levy Eberst. He was the son of a Jewish cantor in the synagogue in Cologne. In 1833, Offenbach moved to Paris to study the cello at the Conservatory and he earned his living playing cello in the orchestra of the Opera Comique. 

In 1850 he became conductor at the Théàtre Francais. Gradually, he became known to the public as a composer of light and humorous operettas. He founded a theatrical company in 1855, the Bouffes-Parisiens, which staged many of his operettas, and he managed the company for many years.

He became a French citizen in 1860. In 1873 he took up the Théâtre de la Gaîté which he managed until 1875. Then in 1876, he toured the United States and Britain, and his many works had great popularity everywhere.

Offenbach completed more than ninety works for the stage. His first success was Orpheus in the Underworld (1858). His most popular compositions appeared in the 1860's, notably La Belle Helene (1864), La Vie Parisienne (1866), La Grande-duchesse de Gerolstein (1867) and La Perichole (1868). 

Offenbach's last work was Les Contes d'Hoffmann (The Tales of Hoffmann). The production of this work was in preparation when he died in Paris in 1880, aged sixty-one, three months too early to witness its reception, an experience to which he had greatly looked forward. 

Source: Classicalmusic.about.com Website