[1] The ballet received its premiere by the Boston Pops under Arthur Fiedler[2] on May 30 of that year.
The libretto, written by Piston and Hans Wiener, describes a marketplace teeming with activity and enlivened by a circus.
A rich widow flirts with a merchant, is discovered by her lover, faints, and is revived by the flutist's music.
Piston extracted an orchestral suite from the ballet, which was premiered on November 22, 1940, by the Pittsburgh Symphony under Fritz Reiner.
The suite is in thirteen movements: Elliott Carter commented on how Piston avoided the use of a particular musical geographic "pastiche" style in the music, which could have made the setting specific to one geography, and noted that the village can be "any village" in this setting.