Offenbach, the first postmodern

Le Regard Libre N° 76 - Jean-David Ponci

If modernity began in the Renaissance with the reappraisal of ancient heritage, postmodernity may well begin with the relativization of this heritage. Offenbach was the first to dare stage the gods of Olympus to mock them. But there is never any gratuitous effrontery. In his works, we find a whole program of questioning the establishment: he thematizes sexual liberation and the emancipation of women. He mocked military force, questioned the legitimacy of political power, showed the ridiculous aspects of bourgeois love... One might get the impression that he was nothing more than an acrobat. In fact, only humor allowed him to say what he would never have had the right to express in a more serious genre than operetta.

Jacques Offenbach, immigré ju