30. Offenbachland
1. Jean Claude Yon, Jacques Offenbach (Paris: Gallimard, 2000), p. 417. Apocryphal comment attributed to Pius IX.
2. General Boum in the Grand Duchess of Gerolstein.
3. Yon, op. cit., p. 405.
4. Despite Zola’s subsequent role as librettist to Alfred Bruneau, that novelist literally read nothing beyond literature and newspapers. He had little knowledge of music or any other subject outside contemporary French literature, and a bit about current art trends. Most of these political denunciations were based on his personal moral considerations and class jealousy. I discuss his attitudes throughout my biography, Emile Zola (New York: Henry Holt, 1988). See also Yon, op. cit., pp. 405–423.
5. Quote: “Mozart of the Boulevards,” by the late conductor Otto Klemperer.
6. Ludovic Halévy to his mother, quoted by Yor, op. cit., pp. 415, 423.
7. Émile Ollivier, L’Empire Libeŕal. Etudes, récits, souvenirs (Paris: Garnier, 1897–1918), vol. V, p. 74; Maxime Du Camp, op. cit., p. 230; and comment to Madame Delessert.
8. For a complete list of Offenbach’s works, cf. Yon, Ibid., pp. 759 ff.
9. Anonymous article, “La Belle Hélène et l’Encyclique,”in the reviews of, La Vie Parisienne, 7 janvier 1865, Yon, op. cit., p. 307.
10. “Chronique du Gérôme,” L’Univers Illustré, 24 déc. 1864, also Yon, op. cit., p. 305, Klemperer quote.
11. David Rissin, Offenbach ou la rire du musique (Paris: Fayard, 1980), pp. 83, 117, 309; Yon, op. cit., p. 306; “frénésie rythmique.”
12. For background on Offenbach’s youth, see Yon, op. cit., pp. 9 ff.
13. Carmona, Morny, op. cit., pp. 340 ff., explores the major role Morny played in Offenbach’s career.
14. Carmona, Ibid., pp. 342–343. Viel Catel, op. cit., vol. III, p. 38.