Zeyer's dramatic poem is a love story, combining classical fairy-tale motifs with mythological references. Suk started to write incidental music in 1897 and soon became very attached to the material. In the end, he wrote overtures to each scene, intermezzos, as well as various vocal solos and choruses. The play was first performed on 6 June 1898 at the
National Theatre in Prague, under the baton of
Adolf Čech. Because the chance of the play receiving regular staging was small, Suk decided to turn most of the music into a four-movement orchestral suite. Suk began to work on the suite on 2 September 1899 at his home in
Křečovice and completed the first two movements by the end of the month. Because of his extensive touring with
Bohemian Quartet he didn't start to work on the third movement until 12 February the next year in Amsterdam. He completed the work back in Křečovice on 9 June 1900, dedicating it to Zdeňka Hlávková, wife of the architect and philanthropist
Josef Hlávka. ==Structure==