Offenbach for kids: his life, his music, and what to play first

Jacques Offenbach was a composer who lived from 1819 to 1880. He was born in Germany and spent his working life in Paris. He wrote about 100 comic operas, full of jokes and tunes that people whistled in the street. One of those tunes is the Can-Can, among the best-known pieces of music in the world. The best first piece for a child is the Can-Can, two minutes of kicking, galloping fun.

Quick facts

• Born: 1819, in Cologne, Germany
• Died: 1880, in Paris, France
• Era: Romantic
• Played: cello
• Known for: the Can-Can from Orpheus in the Underworld, and the Barcarolle from The Tales of Hoffmann

The life in short

Offenbach’s father was a singer in a synagogue and a music teacher. He had ten children, and several were gifted. Jacob, as he was first named, took up the cello at nine and was soon better than his teacher.

When Jacob was 14, his father took him to Paris, the center of the music world. The Paris Conservatory did not admit foreigners. The director heard the boy play and made an exception. In Paris, Jacob became Jacques.

He left the school after a year and went to work. He played the cello in a theater orchestra, where he grew bored and played pranks. Then he toured as a solo cellist and played for kings and queens.

What he wanted was to write for the stage. The big theaters would not take his pieces, so in 1855 he rented a tiny theater of his own. The law allowed him only a few singers on stage at a time. He wrote short, funny shows that fit the rule, and Paris came in crowds.

In 1858, the rule was lifted, and he wrote his first full-length comic opera, Orpheus in the Underworld. It made fun of Greek myths and of important people. Critics were shocked, and tickets sold out.

Hit followed hit for the next ten years. In his last years, he worked on a serious opera, The Tales of Hoffmann. He died four months before it opened.

What the music sounds like

Offenbach’s music sparkles. The tunes are quick and catchy, and the rhythms dance. He liked to start a number at an easy pace and speed it up until it whirls.

His comic operas are called operettas. An operetta has spoken lines between the songs, a silly plot, and a happy ending. It is an ancestor of the modern musical.

Pieces to play first

Can-Can, from Orpheus in the Underworld. Its real title is the “Infernal Galop.” The gods of ancient Greece hold a wild party and dance it.

Barcarolle, from The Tales of Hoffmann. A barcarolle is a song of the boatmen of Venice. Two voices sing in a slow, rocking rhythm, in the manner of a boat on the water.

Overture to Orpheus in the Underworld. It gathers the best tunes of the show and ends with the Can-Can.

“Les oiseaux dans la charmille,” from The Tales of Hoffmann. A mechanical doll sings a showy song. Partway through, she winds down, and someone has to wind her up again.

Things to do together

Kick line. Play the Can-Can. March in place, and kick on the strong beats.

Fast and slow. Play the Can-Can, and then play “Tortoises” from The Carnival of the Animals. Saint-Saëns took Offenbach’s tune and slowed it to a crawl for a joke. See the Carnival of the Animals listening guide.

Wind up the doll. Play the doll’s song. One person sings along and droops when the doll winds down. Another turns an invisible key in her back.

Rock the boat. Sway from side to side to the Barcarolle. Count the beats in each sway.

The cello player

Offenbach never stopped loving the cello. He wrote duets for two cellos that students play today. Read the cello for kids.

Print and play

Fill in a composer study notebook page for Offenbach. For a closer listen, read the Can-can for kids. Find more music to move to in classical music for kids to dance to. To learn how opera works, read opera for kids.

For more composers by era, see classical composers for kids.