George Sand, with whom Balzac had shared his enthusiasm for Mosè in Egitto, advised the writer to put his story on paper.

Balzac also wrote to Maurice Schlesinger,[1] who had commissioned a novel from him for the Revue et gazette musicale de Paris, to ask him for a little extra time to pursue two ideas - one on Robert le Diable by Giacomo Meyerbeer, and the other on Mosè in Egitto and The Barber of Seville by Rossini.

In each box of the la Fenice opera house, the great ladies receive people without ceremony, express their sentiments spontaneously and shed tears of emotion, with male music-lovers going to the caffè Florian after the show to recount every moment of spectacle, each musical phrase, each note, staying all night if necessary.

Emilio Memmi, recently made prince of Varese and heir to a palace, is desperately in love with Massimila Doni, wife of the duke of Caetano, a debauched old man who is keeping the singer Clara Tinti as a mistress.

A terrible misunderstanding leads Emilio to meet Tinti in his palace and falls in love with her pleasurable charms, ashamed of himself.