The opera premiered on October 14, 1971, at the Cedar Theater, Minneapolis, Minnesota, conducted by Philip Brunelle with stage direction by John Donahue.
The puppet master, who appears to live in the train station, tries to control and manipulate the passengers.
Questioning others' motivations, these characters spend the entire opera suspicious of one another not really seeing their common traits, and not aware of the puppet master who is skillfully trying to seduce the passengers to become his marionettes.
One critic says, "I cannot help feeling uncertain about a libretto in which opportunities for emotion are so easily come by… that the significance of what goes on has to be explained in a foreword.”[2] This can be reinforced by the way Argento describes the process, “an untitled piece…a dozen or so typewritten pages of dialog, unassigned to any specific individual.”[2] The lack of structure is a tool used by the creators to control the response, forcing a lack of trust in our purpose in life.
This and the oddities of the score, help classify it as surreal; an amalgamation of music and text condensed into a one-act opera.
There is a selection from Wagner in the opera (Souvenirs de Bayreuth), which is an orchestral section during which a play is put on by mimes.