 The first professional production there was on 18 August 1898 at the Mariinsky Theatre, conducted by Felix Blumenfeld.The reason for its late appearance on the Russian stage was competition from an opéra-comique on the same subject by Félicien David.Peter Tchaikovsky, who heard the opera at the Berlin 1879 staging, liked the opera and wrote to Nadezhda von Meck that ‘it comes from the period in which Rubinstein did all his best work, that is 20 years ago’.