12 April 1867 – the first performance of Jacques Offenbach’s operetta La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein, at the Théâtre des Variétés in Paris. An opéra bouffe, a genre known for its satire and parody, La Grande-Duchesse pokes fun at the military. It was banned three years later, after France was defeated in the Franco-Prussian War, but for those three years it was extremely popular, and was attended by a stream of European royalty.
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