The opera was broadcast on French radio ten days after the premiere,[2] performed at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in 1956, with Graziella Sciutti, Jacques Jansen and Michel Sénéchal, and was recorded in 1959 (conducted by Manuel Rosenthal).
Coelio is a young man desperately trying to win the love of Marianne, who is already married to Claudio, a Napolitan magistrate.
She refuses to love Coelio but, as a result of her husband's rebukes, on a whim, announces her decision to take a lover, and offers Octave an assignation.
Coelio falls into the trap, is ambushed and killed, believing that his friend Octave has betrayed him, by sending him in his place to the assignation.
The end is tragic for all: Coelio is dead, Octave renounces the pleasures of life, Marianne's heart is broken.