In April 1849, the five-act drama by Eugène Scribe and Ernest Legouvé "Adrienne Lecouvreur" was staged with triumphant success in Paris. Based on this play, Arturo Colautti wrote a libretto for the opera of the same name.
The heroine of the opera is a historical character, an actress of the French Comedy Teather, Adriana Lecouvreur, famous for her roles in Racine's tragedies.
The opera was premiered at Milan's Teatro Lirico on November 6, 1902.
This expression is used as a symbol of wealth, gold, power of money, and from here come the expressions "the golden calf worship" and "dance around the golden calf." "Golden calf" was used in the metaphorical sense by the German writer Rudolf von Gottschall and Russian writers Ilf and Petrov as a title of their works. It is taken from the Bible, Chapter 32 of the Book of Exodus.