Nevertheless, great anticipation preceded the premiere of this "American" opera with an English-language libretto, which featured first-rank stars Mary Garden and John McCormack and an unstinted production.

[7] The opera was, according to Meredith Willson, "probably the biggest flop of all time,"[8] although the Chicago production company retained it in its repertoire for three seasons.

He called the libretto "amateurish," the prose "bald and conventional," and the lyrics "of the bad old operatic kind, constructed on Voltaire's theory that what is too foolish to be said is appropriate to be sung."

"[8] As a result of the research and processing of manuscript score and performing parts by Glen Clugston and Peter Hilliard, a first published edition of the opera is now available.

A three-day event culminating in a July 13, 2014 reading of the complete opera using the first published edition was produced under the auspices of VHRP LIVE!