Best 1860s
Offenbach’s *La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein* is a French operetta from 1867. The work uses satire to critique military excess and aristocratic folly following the Franco-Prussian War. Featuring music by Jacques Offenbach and a libretto by Henri Bazin, it premiered with Hortense Schneider as the le...
Les brigands is an operetta by Jacques Offenbach composed in 1869. The French work utilizes a libretto by Henri Meilhac and Albert Halévy to satirize theft within various social classes. It employs traditional operatic conventions alongside comedic elements, reflecting the opéra bouffe genre popular...
Barbe-bleue is a French operetta by Jacques Offenbach, composed in 1866. It adapts Charles Perrault’s “Bluebeard” featuring a satirical libretto by Ernest Meilhac and Henri Bazin alongside music by Offenbach. The work gained recognition for its blend of comedic elements and dark themes, offering a u...
Robert the Devil is W. S. Gilbert's 1868 operatic parody of Meyerbeer's Robert le diable, opening London's rebuilt Gaiety Theatre and running over 120 performances.
Ixion, or the Man at the Wheel is F. C. Burnand's 1863 mythological burlesque, made a landmark New York hit in 1868 by Lydia Thompson's British Blondes.
Die schöne Galathee is a one-act German-language operetta by Franz von Suppé, first performed in 1865. Drawing on the classical story of the sculptor Pygmalion and the statue Galatea, it treats the myth as a comic account of artistic desire, vanity, and romantic disorder. The work became an early cr...
La princesse de Trébizonde is a French opéra bouffe by Jacques Offenbach, with a libretto by Charles-Louis-Étienne Nuitter and Étienne Tréfeu. It premiered in Baden-Baden in 1869 and was subsequently expanded for a Paris production later that year, during the same period as Offenbach's Les brigands....
Le pont des soupirs is an opéra bouffe by Jacques Offenbach, set in Venice with a French libretto by Hector Crémieux and Ludovic Halévy. It premiered in 1861 in a two-act version, followed by a four-act version in 1868. The work parodies historical and romantic operatic tropes set against a backdrop...
"Robinson Crusoé" is an opéra comique in three acts by Jacques Offenbach, with a libretto by Hector Crémieux and Eugène Cormon loosely based on Daniel Defoe's 1719 novel. Premiering at the Opéra-Comique in Paris in 1867, it features a more ambitious and larger-scale musical score compared to many of...
M. Choufleuri restera chez lui le... is a one-act opéra bouffe composed by Jacques Offenbach. It premiered in 1861 at the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens in Paris. The work serves as a satirical parody of the Parisian bourgeoisie's intense fascination with Italian bel canto opera and the social preten...
Le petit Faust is a three-act opéra bouffe composed by Hervé, the stage name of Florimond Ronger, with a libretto by Henri Chivot and Alfred Duru. Premiering in 1869 at the Théâtre des Folies-Dramatiques in Paris, the production serves as a direct parody of both Goethe's classic tragedy and Charles...
"Les chevaliers de la Table Ronde" is an 1866 French operetta composed by Hervé. It holds historical significance as his first full-length work in the genre, debuting at the Bouffes-Parisiens theater in Paris. The production offers a satirical, burlesque interpretation of the traditional Arthurian l...
Chilpéric is an opera bouffe by the French composer Hervé, first performed in Paris in 1868. The work treats the Merovingian king Chilperic I and his court as material for comic parody rather than conventional historical drama. Hervé appeared in the title role, and the score includes the Chanson du...
L'île de Tulipatan is a one-act opéra bouffe by Jacques Offenbach, with a French libretto by Henri Chivot and Alfred Duru. First performed in Paris in 1868, it builds its comedy around two young people whose sexes were concealed or misrepresented by their families, producing mistaken gender roles an...
L'oeil crevé is Hervé's 1867 French opera bouffe, a Folies-Dramatiques hit whose first year reached 345 performances in Paris.
The Corsican 'Bothers' is H. J. Byron's burlesque extravaganza of Alexandre Dumas's The Corsican Brothers, published in London around 1869.
Value, Price and Profit is a text by Karl Marx based on an address he delivered in 1865 to the International Working Men's Association. Marx responds to arguments that wage increases simply cause equivalent price increases, then explains the relationships among labor power, wages, value, profit, and...
Alvin Jewett Johnson's New York atlas, first published in the 1860s and updated through numerous editions, was a popular American household reference atlas of the Civil War period.
Banditenstreiche is an 1867 operetta by Franz von Suppé with a German libretto by B. Boutonnier, premiered at Vienna's Carltheater.
Fleur de thé is Charles Lecocq's 1868 three-act opéra-bouffe, a Chinoiserie piece and his first substantial Paris stage success.
