Soon Delibes started to composer operettas. He wrote 14 operettas in 14 years. He was commissioned to write some music to celebrate the emperor’s return from Algiers. The piece he wrote was called "Alger". It was a huge success. The emperor gave him a gold medal, personally fastening a pin with diamonds to his lapel. In 1864 he became chorus master at the Opéra where he coached the chorus to sing many famous operas. Two years later he started to write ballets. These became very successful and three years later he stopped writing operettas.