Editing Jacques Offenbach (section)

===Reputation===
During Offenbach's lifetime, and in the obituary notices in 1880, fastidious critics (dubbed "Musical Snobs Ltd" by Gammond) showed themselves at odds with public appreciation.<ref>Gammond, p. 137</ref> In a 1980 article in ''The Musical Times'', George Hauger commented that those critics not only underrated Offenbach, but wrongly supposed that his music would soon be forgotten.<ref>Hauger, George. "Offenbach: English Obituaries and Realities", ''[[The Musical Times]]'', Vol. 121, No. 1652 (October 1980), pp. 619–621 {{JSTOR|961146}} {{subscription required}}</ref> Although most critics of the time made that erroneous assumption, a few perceived Offenbach's unusual quality; in ''The Times'', [[Francis Hueffer]] wrote, "none of his numerous Parisian imitators has ever been able to rival Offenbach at his best".<ref name=times>Obituary, ''[[The Times]]'', 6 October 1880, p. 3</ref> Nevertheless, the paper joined in the general prediction: "It is very doubtful whether any of his works will survive."<ref name=times/> ''[[The New York Times]]'' shared this view: "That he had the gift of melody in a very extraordinary degree is not to be denied, but he wrote {{lang|la|currente calamo}},{{refn|Latin, literally, "with the pen running on" – meaning "extempore; without deliberation or hesitation." (''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'')|group= n}} and the lack of development of his choicest inspirations will, it is to be feared, keep them from reaching even the next generation".<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1880/10/06/archives/jacques-offenbach-dead-the-end-of-the-great-composer-of-opera.html "Jacques Offenbach dead – The end of the great composer of opera bouffe"], {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305032440/http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9C02E5DC153FEE3ABC4E53DFB667838B699FDE&scp=2&sq=Offenbach&st=p |date=5 March 2016 }}, ''[[The New York Times]]'', 6 October 1880</ref> After the posthumous production of ''The Tales of Hoffmann'', ''The Times'' partially reconsidered its judgment, writing, "{{lang|fr|Les Contes de Hoffmann}} [will] confirm the opinion of those who regard him as a great composer in every sense of the word". It then lapsed into what Gammond calls "Victorian sanctimoniousness"<ref>Gammond, p. 138</ref> by taking it for granted that the opera "will uphold Offenbach's fame long after his lighter compositions have passed out of memory".<ref>"France", ''[[The Times]]'', 14 February 1881, p. 5</ref>

The philosopher [[Friedrich Nietzsche]] called Offenbach both an "artistic genius" and a "clown", but wrote that "nearly every one" of Offenbach's works achieves half a dozen "moments of wanton perfection". The novelist [[Émile Zola]] commented on Offenbach in an essay, "La féerie et l'opérette IV/V".<ref name=Zola>[[Émile Zola|Zola, Émile]]: {{lang|fr|La féerie et l'opérette IV/V}} in [http://www.gutenberg.org/files/13866/13866-h/13866-h.htm {{lang|fr|Le naturalisme au théâtre}}] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070217175942/http://www.gutenberg.org/files/13866/13866-h/13866-h.htm |date=17 February 2007 }}, 1881 (e-book in French). Retrieved 31 July 2011</ref> While granting that Offenbach's best operettas are full of grace, charm and wit, Zola blames him for what others have made of the genre. Zola calls operetta a "public enemy" and a "monstrous beast". Some critics saw the satire in Offenbach's works as a social protest, an attack against the establishment, but Zola saw the works as a homage to the social system in the Second Empire.<ref name=Zola/>

The mid-20th-century critic [[Sacheverell Sitwell]] compared Offenbach's lyrical and comic gifts to those of Mozart and Rossini.<ref>Ardoin, John. [http://www.ylle.com/sites/sfopera/lookback2/html/hoffman_-_article.htm ''The Tales of Offenbach''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120328094500/http://www.ylle.com/sites/sfopera/lookback2/html/hoffman_-_article.htm |date=28 March 2012 }}. San Francisco Opera, 1996. Retrieved 31 July 2011</ref> [[Otto Klemperer]], although best known as a conductor of the German symphonic classics,<ref>"As though Beethoven himself were standing there", ''Saturday Review'', 14 October 1961, p. 89</ref> was an admirer of Offenbach; late in life he reflected: "At the [[Kroll Opera House|Kroll]] [in 1931] we did {{lang|fr|La Périchole}}. That's a really delightful score. So is ''Orpheus in the Underworld'' and {{lang|fr|Belle Hélène}}. Those who called him 'The Mozart of the Boulevards' were not much mistaken".<ref>"Otto Klemperer talks to [[Alan Blyth]]", ''[[Gramophone (magazine)|Gramophone]]'', May 1970, pp. 1748 and 1751</ref> Debussy, [[Modest Mussorgsky|Mussorgsky]] and [[Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov|Rimsky-Korsakov]] loved Offenbach's operettas.<ref>Almeida, pp. xii and xvii</ref> Debussy rated them higher than ''The Tales of Hoffmann'': "The one work in which [Offenbach] tried to be serious met with no success." He wrote this in 1903, when ''The Tales of Hoffmann'', after initial success, with 101 performances in its first year, had become neglected.<ref>Faris, p. 219</ref> A production by [[Thomas Beecham]] at [[His Majesty's Theatre, London]], in 1910 restored the work to the mainstream operatic repertoire, where it has remained.<ref>"His Majesty's Theatre – Thomas Beecham Opera Season", ''[[The Times]]'', 13 May 1910, p. 10</ref><ref>Faris, p. 221</ref> A London critic wrote, on Offenbach's death, "I somewhere read that some of Offenbach's latest work shows him to be capable of more ambitious work. I, for one, am glad he did what he did, and only wish he had done more of the same kind."<ref>"The Only Jones", ''Judy'', 13 October 1880, p. 172</ref> In ''[[Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians]]'', Lamb writes:<ref name=grove/>
{{blockquote |text=His opera {{lang|fr|Les contes d'Hoffmann}} has retained a place in the international repertory, but his most significant achievements lie in the field of operetta. {{lang|fr|Orphée aux enfers, La belle Hélène, La vie parisienne, La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein}} and {{lang|fr|La Périchole}} remain outstanding examples of the French and international operetta repertory.}}