It was premiered on 28 March 1916 at the National Theatre Munich together with the composer's other one-act opera Der Ring des Polykrates, Op.

The North American premiere was given on 5 November 1927 at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City with Maria Jeritza as Violanta, Walter Kirchhoff as Alfonso, Clarence Whitehill as Simone, Angelo Badà as Giovanni, and Artur Bodanzky conducting.

The plan is that Violanta will receive Alfonso in her room, and once he is disarmed she will sing the Carnival song as a signal that Simone should enter and murder him.

However, when Alfonso explains to her the course of his life and talks about his longing for death, Violanta realises that she really loves him and refuses to give the signal.

Violanta bemoans her fate, but Alfonso implores her to think only of the present moment: they embrace and sing of the sublimity of pure love.