May

28 2019

Celebrating the 200th birthday of Jacques Offenbach

10:30AM - 11:50AM  

JCC of Middlesex County 1775 Oak Tree Road
Edison, NJ 08820
732.494.3232 shorwitz@jccmc.org
http://www.jccmc.org

Contact Sue Horwitz
732.494.3232
shorwitz@jccmc.org
http://www.jccmc.org

Presenter: Richard Ferris
June 20, 2019 will be the 200 year anniversary of the birth of Jacques Offenbach. The famous French, Catholic composer, who was originally neither French nor Catholic, having been born the son of a cantor at a synagogue in Cologne, Germany. He was sometimes referred to as the man who brought humor to opera. With farcical plots many of the composer’s works became the toast of mid-19th century Paris. Les Contes d’Hoffmann, his first and last true opera, the one for which he is most remembered was first performed a year after his death and is considered an operatic masterpiece. The Hoffman featured as the hero in Offenbach’s opera was a real person, and the stories that form its central episodes had been entertaining and intriguing readers for some years before the opera saw the light of day. Hoffman travels from youthful infatuation to idle tarrying and genuine reciprocated love. There are dark, powerful messages in our story but, a work in which the hero falls in love with a mechanical doll is clearly not a tale of serious or profound issues.