Offenbach and Spain

Born in Cologne, but a naturalised French citizen and extremely attached to his adopted country, whose spirit is so well reflected in his music, Jacques Offenbach was nevertheless, like all great creators, a universal and timeless artist. From antiquity to the contemporary period, his catalogue of works depicts every era and a wide variety of places, from Greece to Paris, from Germany to Italy. But Offenbachian geography honours one country in particular: Spain. This special attraction for the Iberian Peninsula (even though Portugal is ignored) is accounted for by reasons at once personal, theatrical and musical.