Offenbach
Offenbach names 2 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Offenbach JACQUES, a French composer of opera bouffe
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
JACQUES, a French composer of opera bouffe; born of Jewish parents in Cologne, June 21, 1819. He went to Paris in 1833, and settled there, becoming orchestra leader in the Théâtre Français in 1848, and manager of the Bouffes Parisiennes in 1855. Offenbach composed a vast number of light, lively operettas, "Marriage by Lanterns"; "Elezondo's Daughter"; etc.; but the productions by which he is best known are a series of burlesque operas, in virtue of which he must be regarded as the inventor of the modern form of opera bouffe. Among the most notable are: "Orpheus in Hades" (1858); "La Belle Hélène"; "Bluebeard"; "The Grand Duchess"; "Genevieve of Brabant"; and "King Carotte." "Madame Favart" (1878) became almost as popular in England and the United States as in France. He died in Paris, France, Oct. 5, 1880. OFFICE BUILDINGS. The construction of edifices designed for purely commercial uses has in modern times reached a development that has made it a field for architecture paralleling the erection of cathedrals in the Middle Ages. In this development America has greatly surpassed the countries of Europe, where the use of former dwellings for business purposes, and the use of dwellings for residences and business combined is still largely in vogue. Banks and insurance companies, and enterprises of a similar kind, to whom a prosperous façade was an advertising asset, were the first to use special structures, but the giant progress of modern business has made the building of great edifices like the Equitable and Woolworth buildings of New York a necessity. The development of the elevator and steel frame has made such building the last word in convenience.
Offenbach a manufacturing town of Hesse-Darmstadt
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a manufacturing town of Hesse-Darmstadt, on the S. bank of the Main, 5 miles S. E. of Frankfort. Before the World War among its industrial products were chemicals, fancy leather goods, machines, and carriages. The schloss was a residence of the princely house of Isenburg-Birstein. Pop. about 80,000.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's list of 1921 catalogues the operettas but omits the work that now dominates Offenbach's reputation: "Les Contes d'Hoffmann" (The Tales of Hoffmann), the serious opera he left unfinished at his death in 1880 and which was staged in Paris in 1881. It is today his most frequently performed piece, and since the later 20th century scholars have worked through the surviving manuscripts to produce critical editions closer to what Offenbach intended, rather than the patched version long used in theatres. The town of the same name is no longer in Hesse-Darmstadt, a state abolished after the Second World War; Offenbach am Main lies in the modern state of Hesse, was badly bombed in that war, and has grown well beyond the 80,000 Collier's reported. Its "fancy leather goods" trade, once the town's signature, has largely gone, commemorated now by the German Leather Museum there.
Written for this edition, 2026.