 These were box-office successes in commercial theatres, but the composer's only work for the prestigious state-owned Opéra-Comique, "Barkouf" (1860), had been a failure, hampered by a plot described by Hector Berlioz as puerile.Since then Offenbach had hoped for a triumphant return to the Opéra-Comique, which commissioned a new work from him for the 1867 season.The piece was described as an opéra comique – regarded by the musical establishment as a superior genre to Offenbach's more usual opéra bouffe.