Wexford Festival Opera

Many European kings and queens have enjoyed life after death as the subject of operas and films, and the life and reign of Queen Christina of Sweden (1626–1689) provides ample material for creative artists. In addition to Foroni’s 1849 opera, written after he left Milan to become conductor of an Italian opera company resident in Stockholm, Queen Christina was the inspiration for August Strindberg’s 1901 play Kristina, and the films Queen Christina (1933), starring Greta Garbo, and The Abdication (1974), starring Liv Ullmann.

The events leading up to Christina’s sudden abdication in 1654 are at the core of Foroni’s opera and are stirringly presented in the dramatic orchestral music and lyrical bel canto vocal writing. The focus of the opera is the queen’s unrequited love for her favourite, Gabriele, but she was also the target of political unrest and conspiracy. Foroni, whose familiarity with the music of Bellini, Donizetti and the young Verdi may be heard in Cristina, died from cholera in 1858 aged thirty-three.

Opera in five parts and three acts
Libretto by Giovanni Carlo Casanova
Composed in 1849
First performed at Mindre Teatern, Stockholm; 19 May 1849
Sung in Italian