Francis de Croisset's play, Cherubin, was never officially opened at the Comedie Francaise for its Paris premiere; for reasons still not known, it was withdrawn at the dress rehearsal. However, Massenet attended that rehearsal and was so taken with its possibilities that he asked Croisset only two days later for permission to write an opera based on it. At Croisset's agreement, he plunged into work, later saying that for almost six days, he did nothing but compose it, eat, and sleep.

He knew that he was using familiar materials and his work would inevitably be compared to theirs, but he saw a closer family resemblance to another Mozart character: Don Giovanni, and threw in many musical and dramatic allusions to this predecessor, particularly in the ending, where Ricardo and the Philosophe comment that Cherubin and Nina are Don Giovanni and Elvira, and Massenet concurs with a brief quotation from "Deh, vieni alla finestra," music associated with Giovanni's continuing betrayal of her love.

It was not a great success, and ran for only 14 performances at its premiere; that might have been due as much to Mary Garden's popularity (the role was written for her) as to the audience's perception of the opera's virtues. However, the role has attracted many mezzos, particularly those like Frederica von Stade and Susan Graham who have performed Mozart's Cherubino to great success. The voluptuousness of the vocal writing for mezzo and soprano lovers as well as the plot device of an adolescent forgetting (well, more or less) experienced older women for the love of an ingénue also are a foretaste of Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier.

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