 The libretto was adapted by the composer from Prosper Mérimée's like-named story from 1829 and Vasily Zhukovsky's verse rendering thereof.It was premiered on 14 December 1907 (Old Style), at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow (the work was given along with the composer's early one-act comic opera, "The Mandarin's Son").The premiere production of "Mateo" was a failure; the work never became part of the standard operatic repertoire in Russia, and seems never to have been performed again.