 Fauré conducted the orchestra for the premiere, at the Prince of Wales's Theatre on 21 June 1898.Mrs Campbell was enchanted by his music, in which, she wrote, "he had grasped with most tender inspiration the poetic purity that pervades and envelops M. Maeterlinck's lovely play".She asked him to compose further theatre music for her in the first decade of the 20th century, but to his regret his workload as director of the Paris Conservatoire made it impossible.