It premiered on 27 July 1974 at the Madeira School auditorium in McLean, Virginia performed by the Wolf Trap Opera Company.

It has been subsequently performed many times by various small opera companies in the United States and Europe.

In a review of a 2008 revival in Washington, D.C., Anne Midgette described it as "an exuberant sendup of over-the-top comic opera plots, filled with effusive lovers leaping with alacrity to wrong conclusions in floods of extreme vocalism.

[2][3] The opera is scored for seven solo singers and a small orchestra (flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, piano, violin, viola, and cello).

However, A series of mistaken assumptions and quarrelling ensues after Célie faints in the town square and loses her locket with a portrait of Léon inside.

"Yes, father, I agree" (Célie, Gorgibus, Rosine, Léon, Signor Deluso, Clara) 7.

Finale: "Now let me clear up this mess" (Rosine, Léon, Signor Deluso, Clara, Célie)