waters, known for his work in the english rock band pink floyd, was approached by friends étienne roda-gil and his wife nadine delahaye in 1987, and asked to set their libretto to music. the initial version was completed and recorded by the end of 1988. after hearing it, françois mitterrand was suitably impressed and urged the paris opera to stage it for the bicentennial of the revolution the following july. the opera directors, however, were resistant, according to waters, because "i was english, and i had been in a rock group." starting in 1989, waters rewrote the libretto in english.