[3] Work on the score was slow because Fauré's teaching and administrative duties as head of the Paris Conservatoire left him only the summer holidays free for composing.

However, for Pénélope he adopted essential elements of Wagner's compositional technique: character and themes represented by leitmotifs, continuous music with no individual arias[8] and requiring the two main roles to have voices of heroic quality.

"[9] The premiere at Monte Carlo was not a great success, partly because the director of the theatre, Raoul Gunsbourg, was more concerned with promoting his own opera, Vénise, which made its debut four days later.

[10] Fauré was not greatly troubled at the modest success of the piece: he regarded the Monte Carlo production as "a rehearsal for Paris", where the work was to be given two months later.

The New York Herald and The Daily Mail of London both praised the work highly, though Die Neue Zeitschrift für Musik was unconvinced by Fauré's music, finding it cold.

[12] The Paris cast was headed by Bréval, with Lucien Muratore as Ulysse, Cécile Thévenet as Euryclée and Paul Blancard as Eumée.

[13] The piece was only very briefly the principal topic of discussion in Parisian musical circles: less than three weeks after the premiere of the opera the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées was the venue for the first performance of The Rite of Spring.

[14] The Opéra-Comique took Pénélope into its repertoire on 20 January 1919, with a cast including Germaine Lubin in the title role and Charles Rousselière as Ulysse and Félix Vieuille as Eumée, conducted by François Ruhlmann.

[9] The opera was staged at the Wexford Festival in 2005, conducted by Jean-Luc Tingaud, with Nora Sourouzian in the title role and Gerard Powers as Ulysse.