Comedy was something of a novelty in French opera and the work looks forward to the genre of opéra comique which would become popular in the mid-18th century.
Mouret also parodied many famous scenes from the prestigious tragédies en musique by Jean-Baptiste Lully, including moments from Armide, Atys and Alceste.
The next time the opera was heard was after Mouret's death, in a revised version performed by the Académie de musique at its theatre in the Palais-Royal in Paris on 30 January 1742, where it was a great success.
It probably inspired Jean-Philippe Rameau to write his own comic opera about an ugly woman, Platée.
Colin arrives at the appointed place only to be terrified by "goblins" who claim to be in the service of the witch Ragonde.