About the work
Opera in five scenes by Riccardo Zandonai to a libretto by Maurice Vaucaire and Carlo Zangarini, based on Pierre Louÿs's novel "La femme et le pantin" (1898). It was first performed on 14 October 1911 at the Teatro Dal Verme in Milan, conducted by Ettore Panizza.
Plot
The cigar-factory worker Conchita meets the wealthy Mateo and falls in love with him, but reads a gift of money to her mother as an attempt to buy her affection and leaves him in anger. She then works as a dancer in a nightclub; when Mateo finds her there, she tests his persistence with repeated humiliations before finally returning his love.
Cultural significance
Conchita found early success in Italy, elsewhere in Europe and in the United States, but largely fell into obscurity after the Second World War. Pierre Louÿs's underlying novel was filmed several times, most famously by Luis Buñuel in 1977 as "That Obscure Object of Desire", whose female lead is still named Conchita.