Editing Jacques Offenbach (section)

===Last years===
[[File:Contes-d'Hoffmann-1881.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|right|''[[The Tales of Hoffmann]]'' – scene from the premiere, showing [[Adèle Isaac]] as the dead Antonia, with (l. to r.) [[Hippolyte Belhomme]], [[Marguerite Ugalde]], [[Pierre Grivot]], [[Émile-Alexandre Taskin]], and [[Jean-Alexandre Talazac]]|alt=Photograph of white man with long hair in 19th century day clothes gesticulating manically over a female corpse, while two other men and a woman look on, horror-struck]]
Profitable though {{lang|fr|La fille du tambour-major}} was, composing it left Offenbach less time to work on his cherished project, the creation of a successful serious opera. Since the beginning of 1877, he had been working when he could on a piece based on a stage play, {{lang|fr|Les contes fantastiques d'Hoffmann}}, by [[Jules Barbier]] and [[Michel Carré]]. Offenbach had suffered from [[gout]] since the 1860s, often being carried into the theatre in a chair. Now in failing health, he was conscious of his own mortality and wished passionately to live long enough to complete the opera, {{lang|fr|[[The Tales of Hoffmann|Les contes d'Hoffmann]]}} ("The Tales of Hoffmann"). He was heard saying to Kleinzach, his dog, "I would give everything I have to be at the première".<ref>Faris, p. 192</ref> Offenbach did not live to finish the piece. He left the vocal score substantially complete and had made a start on the orchestration. Ernest Guiraud, a family friend, assisted by Offenbach's 18-year-old son Auguste, completed the orchestration, making major changes as well as the substantial cuts demanded by the {{lang|fr|Opéra-Comique|italic=no}}'s director, Carvalho.<ref name="KeckASO">[[Jean-Christophe Keck|Keck, Jean-Christophe]]. "{{lang|fr|Genèse et légendes}}", {{lang|fr|L'Avant-Scène Opéra – Les Contes d'Hoffmann}}, Éditions Premières Loges, Paris, No 235, 2006.</ref>{{refn|Guiraud added [[recitative]]s in place of the spoken dialogue.<ref>Gammond, pp. 132–133</ref> The orchestral parts were destroyed in the {{lang|fr|Opéra-Comique|italic=no}} fire of 1887. Using surviving manuscripts, and with the researches of the Offenbach expert [[Antonio de Almeida (conductor)|Antonio de Almeida]] and others, a score closer to Offenbach's conception has been possible, but, in Lamb's phrase, "there can never be a definitive score of a work that Offenbach never quite completed".<ref name=grove/>|group= n}} The opera was first seen at the {{lang|fr|Opéra-Comique|italic=no}} on 10 February 1881.<ref name="KeckASO"/> Offenbach also left his last comedy, {{lang|fr|[[Belle Lurette]]}}, unfinished; Léo Delibes orchestrated it and it was given at the [[Théâtre de la Renaissance]] on 30 October 1880.<ref>Yon, p. 616</ref>

Offenbach died in Paris on 5 October 1880 at the age of 61. His cause of death was certified as heart failure brought on by acute gout. He was given a state funeral; ''The Times'' reported, "The crowd of distinguished men that accompanied him on his last journey amid the general sympathy of the public shows that the late composer was reckoned among the masters of his art."<ref>"France", ''[[The Times]]'', 8 October 1880, p. 3</ref> He is buried in the [[Montmartre Cemetery]].<ref>Harding, p. 249; and [http://en.parisinfo.com/musee-monument-paris/71184/Cimeti%C3%A8re-de-Montmartre "Cimetière de Montmartre"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203124312/http://en.parisinfo.com/musee-monument-paris/71184/Cimeti%C3%A8re-de-Montmartre |date=3 December 2013 }}, Parisinfo, Site officiel de l'Office du Tourisme et des Congrès. Retrieved 23 June 2013</ref>