While his name remains most closely associated with the French operetta and the Second Empire , it is Offenbach 's one fully operatic masterpiece , Les contes d'Hoffmann ( The Tales of Hoffmann ) , composed at the end of his career , that has become the most familiar of Offenbach 's works in major opera houses . While his name remains associated most closely with the French operetta and the Second Empire , it is Offenbach 's one fully operatic masterpiece , Les contes d'Hoffmann ( The Tales of Hoffmann ) , composed at the end of his career , that has become the most familiar of Offenbach 's works in major opera houses .