The year of composition had seen the premiere of his three Parables for orchestra, where the third movement includes "a mysterious figure from [Neveux's] play, the drummer from Knossos is to be heard: it is his fate to announce weddings or funerals...".

[2] Neveux not only wrote the libretto for Julietta premiered in 1938, but also that of Martinů's 1953 unfinished opera Plainte contre inconnu.

[1] The first performance took place in 1961 at the Musiktheater im Revier in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, as the centre-piece of a triple-bill with Mahagonny by Brecht and Weill and Der Analphabet by Ivo Lhotka-Kalinski, two years after the composer's death.

The Czech premiere took place on 23 October 1962 in Brno alongside Ariadne-themed pieces by Claudio Monteverdi and Jiří Antonín Benda, conducted by Richard Týnský, with Miriam Šupurkovská in the title role.

The whole opera, including the three miniature sinfonias which introduce and punctuate it, lasts little more than 40 minutes (of which Ariane's lament takes about 9).