[1] Viennese soprano Fritzi Scheff had already built a following at the Metropolitan Opera when Victor Herbert engaged her to appear in his operettas for an astonishing $1,000 a week.

During the curtain calls of Babette, she pulled Herbert on stage and planted a big, sexy kiss on his cheek.

[1] Henry Blossom and Herbert collaborated on several more operettas, including The Red Mill (1906), The Princess Pat (1915), and Eileen (1917).

Modiste is typical of their proto-feminist plotlines involving an orphaned young woman, exploited by her employer, but whose feisty spirit leads her to success.

In the early years of the 20th century, the composer conducted an acoustic recording on wax cylinder of the ballet music from Mlle.

Modiste (which contained Naughty Marietta on the other side of the record) starring Felix Knight and Doretta Morrow was released in 1953.

Modiste was made by Reader's Digest as part of its 1960 album Treasury of Great Operettas, starring Anna Moffo and conducted by Lehman Engel.

[6] The first complete recording was issued on cassette in 1986 on the Demand Performance label; a transcription of a radio broadcast, it starred Gordon Macrae and Dorothy Kirsten.

[7] A complete set, recorded live with piano accompaniment, was made by the Comic Opera Guild of Ann Arbor, Michigan in 2004.

[8] In 2009, Albany Records released a two-CD set of the complete operetta, featuring Ohio Light Opera in live performance conducted by Michael Borowitz.