June 20 - Jacques Offenbach (The Musical Birthday Series, 2nd Annual Cycle)

Jacques Offenbach (20 June 1819 – 5 October 1880) perfected an operetta style that influenced Arthur Sullivan and Johann  Strauss.

[For last year's nonsense. also on Offenbach click here.] 

Shock Jacques

Jacques Offenbach had written fluff,

And though it had élan enough,

He longed to write more weighty stuff,  

     Grand opera, to whit.

And knowing all that that entails

He hoisted his artistic sails

And set a few of Hoffmann’s Tales

In which a tragic tone prevails.

But working out the last details,

In one of music’s epic fails…,

     He died, and that was it!

 

 

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