 The world premiere of the work took place on 4 June 1994 in Seville, with Michael Riesman conducting.The work has been played more than 90 times around the world, in particular at the Brooklyn Academy of Music of New York on 17 December 1994 for the American premiere and at the Cité de la musique in Paris on 17 January 2003 for the French premiere.Glass had the idea of removing the original soundtrack from Cocteau's film, including the voices of the actors, and replacing it with his own music and the voices of the singers.