With a talent for fusing musical verve with satirical bite, Jacques Offenbach earned his nickname ‘the Mozart of the Champs-Élysées’, by raising operetta to an international art form. He composed over 90 operettas, including Orpheus in the Underworld which gave the world the cancan and The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein, described by George Bernard Shaw as ‘an original and complete work of art which places its composer heavens high.’ In 1938 Manuel Rosenthal was commissioned to write a ballet score based on Offenbach’s operettas. He produced Gaîté Parisienne, a sparkling score which has remained in the repertoire of the Monte-Carlo Ballet since its first performance, extraordinary for a piece that was initially rejected and only saw the light of day thanks to the intervention of Stravinsky, who recognised a hit when he saw one.