It was the first full-length opera by Massenet to be produced, the one-act La grand'tante having been mounted five years earlier by the same company. Don César de Bazan was not a success and it would be another five years, with the premiere of Le roi de Lahore in 1877, before Massenet rose to his place among the most prominent composers of his time. A modern revival took place in several French cities in 2016, when the Frivolités Parisiennes staged a new production including an appearance at the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin, condcuted by Mathieu Romano.