Laurette and Captain Silvio love each other, but Laurette's father, the mayor, wants nothing to do with the relationship. To keep an eye on Laurette, he hires a servant who is loyal to him and can cook to boot. However, the omelette he prepares is so heavy on the mayor's stomach that he immediately throws the new servant out again. Silvio - because he is in fact the servant - leaves behind a letter in which he claims to have put poison in the omelette. Disguised as a miracle doctor, he returns to the house and declares that he can cure the mayor if he receives 15,000 ducats or Laurette as his wife. The mayor would rather give up his daughter than his money, and so Laurette and Silvio end up becoming a couple after all.
In 1856, none other than Jacques Offenbach initiated an operetta competition to expand the repertoire of his house, the Bouffes-Parisiens. One of the two winners was the eighteen-year-old Georges Bizet, who shows his witty side here with highlights such as the "Omelette Quartet". You have never experienced the composer of "Carmen" like this before!