Orphée aux Enfers was Jacques Offenbach’s first success with a full-scale operetta and remains for many the quintessential representative of the genre. This essay discusses ascending cadence gestures in the original two-act ...

Jacques Offenbach’s La belle Hélène (1864) was the successor to Orphée aux Enfers (1858; 1874) in both its send-up of Greek myth and its production triumph. Four other mature and now well-known operettas followed: Barbe-bleue ...

Adolphe Adam’s one-act opéra comique Le Châlet (1834) is a milestone in the history of rising cadence gestures and, as such (combined with its popularity), may have been a primary influence on other composers as rising ...