work
Helen the Beautiful
also: Elena Prekrasnaya
A popular tune associated with Offenbach's operetta "La Belle Hélène," of the kind commonly played by a mechanical music box in a middle-class Russian household of the period.
Reading notes
- To A. N. Pleshcheyev, 25 April 1888. Moscow. §6 the Belle Hélène
Chekhov compares his finished novella to Offenbach's operetta "La Belle Hélène" (known in Russian as "Prekrasnaya Yelena"), quoting the aria's refrain "Gotova! gotova!" ("Ready! Ready!") to announce that the manuscript is done and about to be sent off; see also its earlier appearance as a music-box tune in.