Denisov conceived of the opera in the 1970s, and he worked on it up until 1981. The libretto is written in French. In it, Denisov used text from the novel and from numerous songs by Boris Vian. He also used religious texts, including a song by an anonymous author (14th tableau), a text from a funeral liturgy (13th tableau), and the Latin text from the mass (Credo and Gloria – 2nd tableau) and from the requiem (Agnus dei and Requiem aeternam – 13th tableau).