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Born into a Judeo-German family of professional musicians, cellist Jacques Offenbach began playing in trios in Cologne bars with his brother and sister at the age of 9. Five years later, he was invited to Parisian salons in the company of Franz Liszt and Anton Rubinstein. He gave lessons and launched his career in vaudeville. Married to a Frenchwoman, father of five children, naturalized French in 1860 and made a Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur, his operettas triumphed from Louis-Philippe to the Third Republic, leading the life of a wealthy bourgeois. After the 1870 war, he took over management of the Théâtre de la Gaîté, which went bankrupt. A tour of the United States in 1876 put him back in the saddle. From then on, all he could think about was "Les Contes d'Hoffmann". He died of a heart attack.
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