The reception accorded to Jacques Offenbach's (1819-1880) stage works is traditionally dominated by concepts such as 'satire' or 'parody'. But the insistence on such categories fails to do justice to the heterogeneous nature of his oeuvre. One way of remedying this defect is to examine the works in the literary and dramatic context of the age in which they were written. Paradigmatic for the preoccupation with moral discourse typical of that age is Alexandre Dumas fils' essay »Théâtre utile«. The study sets out to demonstrate that at an idealistic level Dumas fils and Offenbach had more in common than has been hitherto supposed.