Offenbach's success as a composer of comic operas of that light order of which we have no exact equivalent in this country, was almost unique. His industry was also astonishing, and the number of successful works which he produced in his busy life is well-nigh incredible. It was his ambition, however, to write at least one work of a more serious order, and he was at work on the Tales of Hoffmann when he died. It was completed by Guiraud, and produced in Paris in 1881, the year after its composer's death, and was given over a hundred times in that same year. It has ever since been in the repertory in Paris, and is regularly played in most countries of Europe, even in our own.