Product Description
Siegfried Kracauer's biography of the composer Jacques Offenbach is a remarkable work of social and cultural history. First published in German in 1937 and in English translation in 1938, the book uses the life and work of Offenbach as a focal point for a broad and penetrating portrayal of Second Empire Paris. Offenbach's immensely popular operettas have long been seen as part of the larger historical amnesia and escapism that pervaded Paris in the aftermath of 1848. But Kracauer insists that Offenbach's productions must be understood as more than glittering distractions. The fantasy realms of such operettas as La Belle Hélène were as one with the unreality of Napoleon III's imperial masquerade, but they also made a mockery of the pomp and pretense surrounding the apparatuses of power. At the same time, Offenbach's dreamworlds were embedded with a layer of utopian content that can be seen as an indictment of the fraudulence and corruption of the times. This edition includes Kracauer's preface to the original German edition, translated into English for the first time, and a critical foreword by Gertrud Koch. ... Read more

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French/English. Translated by Martin. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Tales of Hoffmann
I LOVE my new score of Tales of Hoffmann. This edition is excellent, and it is a beautiful score. Everything I could have asked for.

Trapped Between Harsh Reality and Evil Fantasy
(This review refers to the book which contains three of Hoffman's many tales.) If you enjoy European fantasy, Hoffman invites you to enter his dark realm where the distinctions between the Real and the Impossible are blurred.Allow yourself to be lead into a parallel universe, where nightmares take on frightenting intensity; where the solid world melts into obsessions, doppelgangers and the scent of brimstone.Where men sell their souls (or their reflections) for passion, fame or talent.Such is the literary milieu created by ETA Hoffman, which inspired Jacques Offenback to compose an opera on three of these chiaroscuro vignettes.

Each tale features a different protagonist--a passionate but morbid young man ensnared by insidious evil or a warped mindset.Still we empathize their their various predicaments as they inevitably fall prey to the schemes of devious men, or even worse--their own propensity for paranoia. It is left to the reader to judge each case for himself.Certain elements are common to all three tales; the importance of Music, superfluous references to artists, scientists and writers of the day, and the quaint contrivance of protecting the identity of the cities by merely giving their first initial.Hoffman's themes are depressing but fascinating; so often the love of good women can not avail the heroes, who simply refuse salvation.Permit the mists of confusion and tempatation to swirl through your brain until you are gradually released from your stifling bondage to the
Normal with its limitations of the senses. Surrender to the dark side--from the safety of your armchair! ... Read more

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Webster's bibliographic and event-based timelines are comprehensive in scope, covering virtually all topics, geographic locations and people. They do so from a linguistic point of view, and in the case of this book, the focus is on "Jacques Offenbach," including when used in literature (e.g. all authors that might have Jacques Offenbach in their name). As such, this book represents the largest compilation of timeline events associated with Jacques Offenbach when it is used in proper noun form. Webster's timelines cover bibliographic citations, patented inventions, as well as non-conventional and alternative meanings which capture ambiguities in usage. These furthermore cover all parts of speech (possessive, institutional usage, geographic usage) and contexts, including pop culture, the arts, social sciences (linguistics, history, geography, economics, sociology, political science), business, computer science, literature, law, medicine, psychology, mathematics, chemistry, physics, biology and other physical sciences. This "data dump" results in a comprehensive set of entries for a bibliographic and/or event-based timeline on the proper name Jacques Offenbach, since editorial decisions to include or exclude events is purely a linguistic process. The resulting entries are used under license or with permission, used under "fair use" conditions, used in agreement with the original authors, or are in the public domain. ... Read more

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This Book Is In German. ... Read more

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This Book Is In French. ... Read more