Despite the fact that Hristić started his work on "The legend" during the late 1920s with Act I even being performed for celebration of the composer's 25th career anniversary (1933), the ballet was completed only following the end of the World War II. It premiered at the National Theatre in Belgrade on 29 November 1947 in choreography by Margarita Froman, set design by Vladimir Zedrinski, and costumes by Milica Babić. The ballet was equally successfully performed during numerous visiting shows in Edinburgh (1951), Athens (1952), Wiesbaden and Salzburg (1953), Geneva and Zurich (1953), Florence and Wien (1955), Cairo (1961), and Barcelona (1965). In its original version "The legend" was also performed in Skopje, Zagreb, Ljubljana, Novi Sad, Sarajevo, Rijeka, and Maribor. For the 1958 premiere held at the Stanislavski and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Academic Music Theatre, Hristić added certain numbers that shaped the final version of the ballet. "The legend of Ohrid" had over 1,300 performances in twenty-four settings (premiered and renewed), engaging four foreign and ten Yugoslav choreographers (some of whom returned to this work several times), with six premieres held in Belgrade. The integral performance and the first recording of the entire ballet music were completed in 2008 (edited by Dejan Despić in 1985) on occasion of the 50th anniversary of the composer's death (Radio Television Serbia Symphony and Choir with conductor Bojan Suđić).