Music to make the Lord God laugh
Jeanette MacDonald and Maurice Chevalier in the 1934 film of The Merry Widow
Alamy/Chronicle
In initiating the distinctive French tradition of opéra bouffe, Jacques Offenbach is often seen as the founding father of operetta in its early golden age and the grandfather of modern musical theatre
The son of a Jewish cantor, he converted to Catholicism when he married his Spanish wife in 1844. Following his conversion, he composed Masses for the marriages of two daughters. The manuscripts have remained in private family archives, but two Ave Marias and an Agnus Dei have been published. He also wrote Gloire à Dieu, a soprano aria, and Litanies de la Vierge for tenor and organ. There are invocations to Mary in two of his operettas.
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