 Later the press conjectured as to the reason for the delay of the opera, suggesting that Thomas had yet to find his ideal Ophélie.Thomas' opera "Mignon" (1866), an adaptation of Goethe's novel "Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre", had been the composer's very effective response to Gounod's earlier Goethe adaption, the opera "Faust", which had premiered in 1859.