Jacques Offenbach – king of Operetta

Grafenegg [ENA] We all know such famous music as Cancan or Barcarole. They became hits being interpreted by various artists and transmitted by various media. What is less know is that this music belongs to the French composer Jacques Offenbach. The name of Offenbach is frequently connected to Hoffman Fairytales, his most famous work, but not to a Cancan, even though his music is joyful, frivolous and dynamic as a cancan dance.

The spirit of Jacques Offenbach is the spirit of Paris at the end of the 19th century with promenades at the Grand Boulevards, the World Exhibition, the engineering innovations and new constructions like the Eiffel’s Tour. Exactly at the side of the World Exhibition Jacques Offenbach opened his own theater, the so-called Paris Theater-Bouffes. This was the beginning of his popularity in Paris. At the Paris Theater-Bouffes the first interpretation of Cancan also took place.

So, what has Cancan to do with such place as Grafenegg? Grafenegg is a town nearby Vienna which is proud of his castle Grafenegg, which was built in the 19th century, actually at the time when Jacques Offenbach was active in Paris. The castle was built in the middle age style and renovated recently, where someone can feel love to every detail. The castle is a home to one of the most famous Austrian music festivals, the Grafenegg Summer Festival.

Every year thousands of people come to Grafenegg to enjoy classical music performed by the best world known orchestras such as Mariinsky Orchestra from Saint Petersburg with Valery Gergiev or King’s Concertgebouworchester from Amsterdam, or Shanghai Symphony Orchestra with Long Yu, or Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra with Andres Orozco-Estrada. All these names sound very serious, so what do they have to do with Jacques Offenbach?

In July this summer a trio of musicians called Les Musiciens du Louvre granted the Grafenegg publicum joy and pleasure of the Jacques Offenbach music. This opulent evening brought to Grafenegg spirit of the Paris Boulevards, gossips and satire about powerful people of that time. It was a travel to the reality of Paris in the times of Napoleon III and of the taste of a broad variety of music lovers, from bourgeois to the Paris underground, who enjoyed swings of music and poetic tones about romance, love and pleasure expressed in the music of Jacques Offenbach.

The Grafenegg summer festival takes place every year and is certainly a good opportunity to combine experience of music with the atmosphere of romantic castle surrounded by wine yards close to Vienna. Several concerts are already planned for special events such as Christmas or Easter Concerts. There will be also concerts dedicated to works of such famous composers as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Robert Schumann or Gustav Mahler.