It premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City on February 27, 1913, with Pasquale Amato in the title role and Frances Alda as Roxane.

Its first US performance in English had taken place in New York City with Richard Mansfield in the title role in 1898, less than year after its Paris premiere.

From 1900 to 1901, Constant Coquelin, who created the title role, had also toured North America performing the play in the original French with Sarah Bernhardt as Roxanne.

When Damrosch decided to turn the play into an opera, he commissioned the Anglo-American critic and musicologist, William Henderson to write an English libretto.

In 1911 Damrosch invited Gatti-Casazza and Arturo Toscanini to his house to hear excerpts from Cyrano, and it was chosen for the 1912/1913 season.

Shortly before the opera's opening, Edmond Rostand pronounced himself "indignant" at the liberties which Damrosch and Henderson had taken in adapting his play, particularly the ending.

[2] Cyrano premiered on February 27, 1913, with Pasquale Amato in the title role and Frances Alda (Gatti-Casazza's wife) as Roxanne in a performance conducted by Alfred Hertz.

The critic for the Boston Evening Transcript had praise for the libretto but found the music "lack[ing] individuality, imagination, and communicative force.

"[4] Robert Aldrich in his opening night review for The New York Times likewise praised the libretto as a literary work and noted how well Henderson's verse was suited to the needs of the singers, but went on to say: The music of Cyrano is undoubtedly composed with skill, with verve, and in many parts with spontaneity.

Damrosch revised his opera over the years and revived it in its new version in concert performances Carnegie Hall which opened on 21 February 1941.

Edward O'Gorman of the New York Post wrote that its score was one that: the average listener might not journey far to hear, but one that he would probably like once he got there, and remember with pleasure if he didn't stay too long.

The opera, like Rostand's play, is set in France in 1640 against the background of the Siege of Arras during the Thirty Years' War.

Montfleury, an actor whom Cyrano had banished from the stage for a month because of his lack of acting skills and attentions to Roxanne begins his performance.

De Guiche is wounded and leaves followed by the rest of the audience, including Roxane who greets Cyrano as she departs with her duenna.

After they leave Cyrano reveals to Le Bret his love for Roxanne and the shame he feels at having such a large nose.

Le Bret goes out but returns immediately, saying that De Guiche with a hundred men is seeking Cyrano with intent to fight him again.

The next day at Ragueneau's pastry shop, a gathering place for poets, Cyrano awaits his appointment with Roxane and writes her a letter, telling of his love for her.

Several Gascony cadets enter, Le Bret and Christian among them, and congratulate Cyrano on his victory over De Guiche and his hundred men.

De Guiche comes to say farewell before going to war, and tells her that the Gascony cadets, including her cousin Cyrano, are in his command.

To keep Christian from going to war, she tells De Guiche that Cyrano loves the battlefield and if he really wants revenge on him, he will leave the Gascony cadets behind.

Realising that monk does not know the contents of the letter, Roxane tells him that it is a command from De Guiche for her to be married to Christian immediately.

As De Guiche approaches, Cyrano falls in front of him as from a great height, and starts giving him a lengthy and fantastic explanation of how he fell.

Roxane and Christian, followed by the monk and the duenna, appear at the door of the house, and Cyrano tells De Guiche that they are man and wife.

Cyrano realizes that now more than ever she will love the man she supposes her husband to have been, and that because of his death it is impossible for the real writer of the letters to be declared.