The setting of the opening scene which allowed Giordano to include a children's chorus was changed to the sunny courtyard in the orphanage with views of the Neapolitan landscape in the distance.

In this respect and in terms of its plot, Giordano's work pre-figures Puccini's Suor Angelica which was composed some seven years later.

Mese Mariano premiered at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo on 17 March 1910 conducted by Leopoldo Mugnone with Livia Berlendi in the leading role of Carmela.

However, when the opera was first performed in Naples (10 April 1911 at the Teatro San Carlo),[3] it was not a critical success,[5] and Giordano and Di Giacomo further revised the work in 1913.

[8] In addition to Livia Berlendi and Emma Carelli, notable sopranos who have sung the role of Carmela include Clara Petrella, Magda Olivero, Augusta Oltrabella, and Patrizia Ciofi.

After the Contessa leaves and the children have been led to their rooms, Carmela enters the courtyard bringing a freshly baked Easter cake for her little boy and asks Suor Pazienza if she might see him.

Overcome with guilt, she tells Suor Pazienza and the Mother Superior how she had been seduced and abandoned as a young girl and left with a son to bring up on her own.