Offenbach's career began with a year's study at the Paris Conservatoire and several years experience as a solo and orchestral cellist. He became a theatre conductor in 1850, finally getting his own stage works performed in 1855.

Writing mainly for the Bouffes Parisiens, he reached the peak of his international success in the 1860s; revivals and tours, as well as the score of his serious opera Les contes d'Hoffmann (unfinished, completed by Guiraud), dominated the 1870s.

With Johann Strauss (II), Offenbach was one of the two outstanding composers in popular music of the 19th century and the writer of some of the most exhilaratingly gay, tuneful music ever written. Les contes d'Hoffmann has retained a place in the international repertory for its fantasy and its strongly appealing music, but his most significant achievements lie in operetta: Orphee aux enfers (1858), La belle Helene (1864), La vie parisienne (1866), La Grande-Duchesse de Gerolstein (1867) and La Perichole (1868) are striking examples.

Moreover, it was through the success of Offenbach's works abroad that operetta became an established international genre, producing major national exponents in Strauss, Sullivan and Lehar and evolving into the 20th-century musical.

Offenbach was well served both by his skilful chief librettist Ludovic Halevy and by his talented leading ladies Hortense Schneider and Zulma Bouffer.

His comic subjects, usually satirical treatments of familiar stories with a sharp glance at contemporary society and politics, are enhanced by none-too-subtle musical devices, including the quotation of well-known operatic music in incongruous settings. His tunes are often built upon a rising phrase in a major key and his finales are made exciting by gradual tempo acceleration and the use of brass at climaxes.

Offenbach had a rare gift for catchy tunes, usually in dance rhythms, and telling harmonic touches. Through its famous overture (in fact composed by Carl Binder) and can-can, Orphee aux enfers has remained his best-known operetta.