Jacques Offenbach Galop from Geneviève de Brabant

Описание: Jacques Offenbach founded the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens, a theater company based in a small building on the Champs-Elysées in Paris, France, hoping to capitalize on the influx of international visitors to the Paris Exposition in 1855. Offenbach wrote nearly one hundred operas and operettas. To produce this vast amount of work, he relied on established musical forms and theatrical plot devices like military satires, the obligatory waltz, the aria for the flirtatious young maid, and popular dances such as the can-can, polka, and galop.

Offenbach’s Geneviève de Brabant was first staged at Bouffes-Parisiens in 1859 to lukewarm reviews. Offenbach returned to the score in 1867, producing a new version expanded to three acts with a new libretto and new music. This production was a huge success, in part due to the addition of two comic, military characters. The Gendarmes’ Duet sung by these roles was a hit and became well known in France and beyond. This duet is believed to be the musical source of the oldest U. S. service song, the Marines’ Hymn.

Conducted by former Director Col. John R. Bourgeois, USMC (Ret.), this piece was performed at The Music Center at Strathmore for the Marine Band’s annual gala performance in March 2025.