 Nadal was encouraged to produce the play after his rival Voltaire's play on the same story had failed after only one performance the previous year (1724).However, at the play's February 1725 premiere at the Comédie-Française, the audience booed its opening scenes and demanded that Voltaire's play be put on instead.Nadal was convinced his own "Mariamne" had failed because of Voltaire's ""brigue horrible et scandaleuse"" that set Paris against it, and said so in the preface to the printed play, accusing him of bringing a cabal into the audience at the premiere to disrupt it.