1. A square at the Halles in Paris
2. An elegant drawing room
3. Garden of a café at Belleville, near Paris

• Clairette Angot, soprano
• Mademoiselle Lange, mezzosoprano
• Pomponnet, wigmaker, tenor
• Ange Pitou, singer, tenor
• Larivaudière, banker, (comic) baritone
• Louchard, Chief of Police, bass
• Amaranthe, fish-wife, soprano or mezzo-soprano
• Thrénitz, dancer, tenor or baritone

If desired, a ballet may be inserted in the third act; the music for this is available at request (the score here requires a second bassoon). In the second finale of the opera a trumpet is sounded from behind the scenes.

Extraordinarily charming, an entrancing stream of solos, duets, ensembles and choruses.

In contrast to many operettas, the last act also contains much new and interesting music, and, if desired, a grand ballet-scene.

Madame Angot was a popular character, known from a number of plays: a fish-wife who managed to become a millionairess in the upheavals of the French revolution. The market-sellers of Paris have given Madame Angot’s daughter, Clairette, an education and have also chosen a husband for her: Pomponnet, a wig-maker. Clairette, however, is in love with Ange Pitou, a street-singer with royalist sympathies.
In the second act it appears that Clairette has a rival, Mlle Lange, an intriguer and patroness of Pitou. After many developments Clairette realizes that Pomponnet is not such a bad choice after all, and marries him.