In Penderecki's native country Poland, the first performance, which was held in Warsaw six years after its world premiere in 1969 and considerably less risqué, received generally very negative reviews. Even the composer himself did not think the work was performed successfully. In May 1998, almost thirty years after the world premiere of the opera, a critic commented that the work was artistically successful, but musically was less successful. The same critic, after seeing a performance of the opera in Poznań, also suggested that the work could even be called "anti-opera."