Other Books to Check Out

This biography, published in Germany in 1930 on the 50th anniversary of Offenbach’s death, was the first to focus on the composer in scholarly depth. It provides a great deal of analysis and information on the influences of Offenbach’s childhood in Cologne, as well as detailed discussions of his work. The book has been long out-of-print and is very difficult to find. This English translation, done to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Offenbach’s birth, makes this important biography available again to a wider audience.

In this memoir, the great operetta composer relates tales of his youth and career before he moved to Vienna in 1909. From his beginnings in the small Hungarian town of Siófok, to his schooling in Budapest and his first operettas, Kálmán infuses his story with a rich variety of anecdotes and adds a lengthy postscript about his family, friends, and colleagues.