When, in 1928, Alfredo Casella approached opera for the first time, he was already a mature, 45-year-old composer. La Donna Serpente by Carlo Gozzi was a subject that had intrigued him for a decade or so and, in fact, in 1918 he had conceived of a choral ballet, for which he commissioned scenery and costumes from the Russian painter. La Donna Serpente kept Casella busy for three years, from October 1928 to the same month in 1931. Just days before the opening at the Teatro Reale in Rome of his "opera-fairy tale" - the description the composer and obliging librettist Cesare Vico Lodovici chose to give the score - Casella listed the criteria utilized for its composition: choice of a subject taking place in an imaginary, fantasy world given the fact that opera itself already represented an anti-realistic genre and prevalence given to the music.