The first Massenet Festival took place in November 1990 when the opera Cléopâtre and the oratorio La Vierge were presented.
There is a particular similarity to the story of Juba in La Calprenède's romance Cléopâtre, who becomes a slave in Rome and is given a Roman name—Coriolanus—by his captors, as Oroonoko is given the Roman name of Caesar.