[3] In 2001 Shchedrin extracted "symphonic fragments" for orchestra from the opera score, which were published as Lolita-Serenade, dedicated to Mariss Jansons.

[6] Instead, it was premiered on 14 December 1994 at the Royal Swedish Opera, staged by Ann-Margret Petterson and conducted by Rostropovich.

[10] In 2008 the second act of the opera was performed in concert at St. Petersburg's Mariinsky Theatre, conducted by Valery Gergiev, together with Messiaen's L'ascension and Pierre Boulez's Four Notations, as part of the Second New Horizons festival.

[1][12] It was staged by Konstanze Lauterbach, conducted by Wolfgang Ott, with Emma Pearson in the title role and Sébastien Soulès as Humbert.

[1][13][14][15] A workshop before the premiere, called Opernforum (Opera Forum), introduced the history and music of the work.

He seduces the girl and lives with her for some time after marrying pro forma her mother (who dies shortly after).

Three years after the end of their increasingly fraught relationship, Humbert meets Lolita again, now married to another man and expecting his baby.

The music of Lolita-Serenade, which is part of the opera, has been compared to that of Alban Berg's Lulu:Despite the darkness and violence – Lolita is, after all, the story of a predatory, obsessed, self-deluded murderer and the lost childhood and early death of an orphaned 13-year-old girl – Shchedrin's Lolita Serenade has many moments of affecting tenderness, from the gently intertwining flute tendrils that begin it to the sweetly sad epilogue that ends the piece.

The scoring is striking and memorable, especially in the use of spare, unadorned harpsichord figures to impart a sense of fragility and lost innocence.

[13] In the end Humbert stammers syllables of Lolita's name against a boys' choir chanting Ora pro nobis (Pray for us).