La belle Vivette

First performed by ENO in 1995, 'La Belle Vivette' is Frayn's reworking of Offenbach's 'La Belle Hélène, with a metatheatrical twist, creating an opera about the creation of an opera in Second Empire Paris in the 1860s. A parody of the Helen-Paris love story, Frayn's operetta has Vivette as the face that launched a thousand ships. Kept under tight control by her protector Monsieur Ploc, she nevertheless falls in love with the smitten new composer, Monsieur Berger.