Offenbach was a Jew, born in 1819 in Cologne, where his father was Cantor of the Synagogue. At the age of fifteen. as a 'Cellist he joined the Orchestra of the Opera Comique in Paris. Later he became the conductor of the Theatre Francais, and as a composer began to make a name with his songs, which he took care should always be melodious and 'catchy,' so that the public could pick them up as soon as they heard them. By and by he took a theatre of his own and composed for it a series of bright and tuneful Operettas which brought him money and fame, so that in the end he again entered the doors of the famous Opera Comique, this time not as a humble member of the orchestra, but as an honoured composer of coffer-filling music. In all he wrote ninety operas, at an average rate of exactly three and three-fifths per annum - too fast for first-rate work; it was journalism rather than authorship, so to speak, so that it is not surprising that only two or three are ever heard to-day, and of these Tales of Hoffman is, of course, much the most popular

An Overture of Suppe will recall to many older listeners the vanished joys of yesteryear. Younger folk may like also to hear a typical specimen of the kind of gay music that delighted their fathers and grandfathers.
Operettas and faeces with music, were Suppe's speciality. He turned out about a couple of hundred such pieces in all. Nowadays, we in this country know little more than one piece, but we know that one well-the Poet and Peasant Overture, which has been arranged for nearly sixty different combinations of instruments. The Overture we are to hear is that to another of his Operas, Boccaccio, which he brought out in 1879, and which London heard a few years later.

Source: Radio Times

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