The opera has been revived sporadically in the modern era, most notably during the 1970s with Joan Sutherland, conducted by Massenet champion Richard Bonynge.

The story of the opera is based on the medieval chivalric tale Parthénopéus de Blois,[1] which was written in the middle of the 12th century by Denis Pyramus.

On 1 August 1886, Massenet and his publisher Georges Hartmann attended a performance of Parsifal at the Bayreuth Festival, an event which deeply impressed the composer and had a significant influence on his music.

In his Memoirs, which were compiled in 1911 near the end of his life,[2] Massenet ascribes the creation of the role of Esclarmonde to a chance meeting with Sibyl Sanderson sometime in the spring of 1887.

It is almost certain, however, that he had received the libretto to Esclarmonde much earlier than that,[3] and the meeting with Sybil Sanderson served rather as an additional catalyst – a stimulus to complete the opera.

During the most intensive period of creation in the summer of 1887, Massenet moved into the Grand Hotel in Vevey, where Miss Sanderson was also staying; there he rehearsed with her each evening the various sections of his new opera as he composed them.

Rodney Milnes suggests that Massenet's "passion for his leading lady resulted in some of his most chromatically tortuous erotic writing" while observing that the operatic events are "dispatched in just over two hours of music".

[1] Crichton notes also the skill of Massenet in writing for male voices - both the tenors Roland and Énéas, but also for the Bishop, the Emperor Phorcas and the King.

He also points to the scoring of low instruments, where the bass clarinet and tuba show "an individual application of lessons well learned from the later parts of The Ring, used with a discretion unlikely to upset the general public of the day".

[4] Seven black and white projections for the scenes of sorcery, using the magic lantern technology, were created by Eugène Grasset, who also illustrated the original vocal score.

Sequestered by her emperor father, Phorcas, who has recently abdicated the throne to her, she bemoans her love for Roland, a knight and Count of Blois, believing she will never be allowed to be with him.

A studio recording by Decca was made on 2–15 July 1975 at the Kingsway Hall, London, with Joan Sutherland (Esclarmonde), Huguette Tourangeau (Parséis), Clifford Grant (Phorcas), Giacomo Aragall (Roland), Louis Quilico (The Bishop of Blois), Ryland Davies (Enéas), Robert Lloyd (Cléomer), Finchley Children's Music Group, John Alldis Choir, National Philharmonic Orchestra, cond.