The Fel Cellist - Jacques Offenbach's 200th Birthday | Music | '
"Piff, Paff, Puff", so it is currently on gaudy yellow posters, which is advertised in the cathedral city of Cologne for the first Jacques Offenbach Festival. "Piff, Paff, Puff" sounds like a broken exhaust or an exploding confetti cannon at a party.
The latter is more or less true, because these days the 200th birthday of the operetta composer Jacques Offenbach, who was born on 20 June 1819 in Cologne, is celebrated. In Cologne, however, there is neither an Offenbach Theater nor an Offenbach Museum. After all, the square in front of the Cologne Opera House is named after him. In Paris, where Offenbach died in 1880, it looks similarly meager.
The unloved son of his city
Co-founder of the Offenbach-Gesellschaft Thomas Höft
There are many reasons for this and one is perhaps the Jewish origin of Jacques Offenbach, who was born the son of a synagogue cantor. At least that's what the dramaturge and artistic adviser of the festival, Thomas Höft, suggests: "For years I worked for the well-known conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt, who asked: 'Why do we play Offenbach in Zurich, Graz and Vienna, but not in Cologne?' Answer he delivered with the same. "That's probably the old anti-Semitic history of the city." Höft did not want to leave that alone and then drummed known people from the arts, the media and the citizens together to form an Offenbach society.
It sounds like a love-hate relationship, as the poet Heinrich Heine felt towards his hometown of Dusseldorf. Even there, for decades, it was difficult to appreciate the famous son of the city. "It was the same time and the same Jewish background," confirms Thomas Höft. "Both have been banned from the history of the cities, and we want to bring Offenbach back to consciousness."
The master of the operetta can do more
The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein, a new production at the Cologne Opera
Offenbach has established the entertaining operetta as an independent genre. Operettas like "The Parisian Life" or "Orpheus in the Underworld" with the famous Cancan are among the best known of his works. "There are five to six works in his mind that are still associated with Offenbach, but he wrote a total of around 140 stage works alone," says musicologist Ralf-Olivier Schwarz, who accompanies the Offenbach Festival with his expertise. Offenbach is a much more colorful and multi-layered personality than the reception history has so far conveyed.
While some people like to see Offenbach with his mocking operettas as "frivolous entertainers", other scholars are trying to convey his socially critical allusions in the texts to Napoleon III. emphasized. Offenbach was not so political and just wrote funny operas for pure entertainment, says Ralf-Olivier Schwarz. "I can not understand what is supposed to be artistically bad about good entertainment, good entertainment is worth a lot, that's not what Offenbach discovered."
The Offenbach Festival in Cologne not only invites to concerts, street theater and cabaret, but also to discussions and discussions. There is much to discover, such as the young church musician who wrote music for the synagogue or the cellist and the composer for romantic operas. An Offenbach, who wants to fit the latest findings in any drawer so pretty.
Offenbach the gifted cellist
Because Offenbach was also a highly talented cellist, his father wanted to accommodate him at a young age at the Paris National Conservatory. Actually foreigners were not admitted there, but Isaac Offenbach did a lot of persuading. Afterwards, Jacques Offenbach's cellist career went steeply uphill, especially in the Paris salons.
The Landesjungendorchester and cellist Bruno Philippe can be proud of their performance of the Cello Concerto
One of the most difficult works for a cellist still today is the Cello Concerto in G major, which Offenbach composed in 1850. The Landesjugendorchester NRW has played it at the Offenbach Festival. "We asked a number of renowned cellists, but nobody wanted to play the solo," says the manager of the orchestra, Agnes Rottland. After the concert, the French soloist, Bruno Philippe, confessed that he did not know whether he would ever play the piece again after four performances. Anyone who not only heard, but also saw how his fingers slid across the strings for 45 minutes without pausing – each felt second tone a vibrato – can feel his pain.
Offenbach has marketed itself
"Offenbach was a PR and marketing genius and also marketed itself," explains Schwarz. He had cultivated the image of the "devil cellist" as well as the image of the "frivolous entertainer", writes the Offenbach biographer. "As a devil cellist, he fainted and then the ladies bent over him to bring this ashen artist back to life, and then he had the whole salon on his side."
Biographer Ralf-Olivier Schwarz is enthusiastic about Offenbach's life and work
In 1870, when he was running his own theater, the acceptance was not so great anymore. The German-French War made life difficult for him, too. The French saw in him the German enemy, the Germans stamped him as frivolous Frenchmen and traitors. There were anti-Semitic tendencies in both countries, so that even after the war Offenbach could no longer build on its previous successes and retreated to the countryside.
But he was not impoverished when he died on October 5, 1880 in Paris. A successful tour of America in 1876 had brought him enough money to live well from it. The Parisians had not forgotten him completely. 3000 mourners would have accompanied his coffin. The church doors of the memorial service were left open so that people could hear Offenbach's music, including some pieces from the new unfinished fantastic opera "Hoffmann's Tales".
Offenbach in the museum
Jacques Offenbach in the circle of his family before 1880
The Offenbach Society also wants to ensure beyond the jubilee year that the versatile musician will not be forgotten. "In the Jewish Museum Miqua planned by the city of Cologne, the history of the Offenbach will become an integral part", says the coordinating director of the festival, Claudia Hessel. In addition, in July at the great folk fireworks "Kölner Lichter" music by Jacques Offenbach will sound. Piff, Paff, Puff you want to say there. But actually this saying has a different story:
"Piff, Paff, Puff is a witty ironic song by General 'Bumm' from the comic opera 'The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein'," explains dramaturge Thomas Höft. "His wars take place on the table, he celebrates his victories drinking and his weapons are the humor." That is serene and strange. "I think with this ironic sense, that's the right title for our festival, because Offenbach is also cheerful and in the best sense of the word strange at the same time".
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