Chorus Lines and Cowboys

Jacques Offenbach

The next two choices to be presented at Orchestra Kentucky's October 25th concert, You Be the Judge!, are Offenbach's Can-Can and the portion of Rossini's William Tell Overture known as the theme to the Lone Ranger. So, will it be music for chorus lines or cowboys that evening? We begin with the first candidate, Offenbach's contribution to the world of dance halls.

Jacques Offenbach was born Jacob Offenbach on June 20, 1819 in Cologne, Germany. He died in Paris on October 5, 1880. When Jacob was fifteen, his father took him to Paris to study the cello at the conservatory. It was then that he took his French name, Jacques.
Money problems forced Jacques to drop out of the conservatory and take a job playing cello in the Opera-comique. After a career as a virtuoso cellist and conductor, Offenbach began a successful career composing operettas. Operettas are synonymous with light opera or, in the English speaking world, musical theatre. Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld (1858) was his first full-length operetta from which the Can-Can is derived.  He went on to write nearly 100 operettas.

Actually, the can-can is a physically demanding dance performed by a chorus line of female dancers, wearing costumes of long skirts, petticoats, and black stockings--in fashion in the 1890s. The dance is characterized by the dancers lifting their skirts, kicking high and suggestively moving their bodies for patrons. Offenbach's galop from Orpheus is the music most closely associated with the can-can. The music was perfect for the can-can because the can-can is actually a more lively galop.  Can-can dancers were favorite subjects for the French painter Toulouse-Lautrec (see painting on right).

Jane Avril Dancing





For a video demonstration of the can-can, danced to Offenbach's galop, click here. WARNING: This video is rated PG.

Tomorrow, we will examine Rossini's overture that has become closely associated with TV and film's Lone Ranger.