Offenbach's Blues: The Sunday Question and the Centennial

• Published in: Notes (Music Library Association) Vol. 82; no. 1; pp. 7 - 21
• Main Author: Sestrick, Timothy
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Philadelphia Music Library Association 01.09.2025
• Subjects: Anniversaries; Music; Offenbach, Jacques; Opera; Opera houses; Questions; Success; Theater; New York; France; United States > US; New York City New York

When Jacques Offenbach visited the United States in 1876, the country was both celebrating its hundredth anniversary and debating the Sunday question, the role of longstanding Sunday-closing laws in the life of the growing nation. Much to his annoyance, Offenbach was engulfed in the Sunday question...