JACQUES OFFENBACH It is dangerous to prophesy.

Not long ago I was speaking of Offenbach, trying to do justice to his marvellous natural gifts and deploring his squandering them.

And I was imprudent enough to say that posterity would never know him.

Now posterity is proving that I was wrong, for Offenbach is coming back into fashion.

Our contemporaneous composers forget that Mozart, Beethoven and Sebastian Bach knew how to laugh at times.