The operetta premiered just two days before the Battle of Solferino, a gruesome battle in the Second Italian War of Independence, which cost France 2,500 dead and 12,000 wounded soldiers.
Compositional Technique
Offenbach's operettas, like this one, were characterized by their concise plots, often in a single act, a limited number of characters, and extremely free, satirical, and nonconformist libretti.
Composer Biography
Jacques Offenbach, though born in Cologne, Germany, and of Jewish faith, became a French citizen by adoption and the "icon" of the Parisian operetta.
Composition History
Un mari à la porte premiered at the Bouffes-Parisiens on June 22, 1859, chronologically placed between Offenbach's masterpieces Orphée aux enfers and Geneviève de Brabant.
Composition History
Offenbach established the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens, a theatre dedicated to staging the new musical genre of operetta, for which he was the main composer.
Composer Biography
Offenbach's father, Isaac Eberst, was a synagogue singer and composer who taught his son his first musical rudiments and enrolled him in cello class at the Paris Conservatory.
