 The work was the last of five such burlesques that Gilbert wrote in the late 1860s.As in his other operatic burlesques, he chose a selection of operatic and popular tunes and wrote new words to fit them.The plot of the piece was loosely based on Vincenzo Bellini's 1831 opera "Norma", with dialogue in rhyming couplets full of complicated word-play and dreadful puns.