Cristina, regina di Svezia

Opera in 3 Acts by Jacopo Foroni (1825–1858)

First performed on 19th May 1849

1849 was a turning point in Swedish musical life. Jacopo Foroni had recently arrived in Sweden from Milan. He had been invited to join Vincenzo Galli's Italian opera company to replace Paolo Sperati as conductor following his departure to take up the post of conductor at the Christiania Theatre in Oslo. In 1848 Galli's company was on a Scandinavian tour and at the end of the year had arrived in Stockholm. They had a great success at the Mindre Teatern, a rival establishment to the Royal Opera which at this time was in a bad state of decline.

When Foroni arrived in November 1848 Sweden was under the rule of Oscar 1, a king well-known throughout the musical world of Europe as a talented composer and personal friend of Mendelssohn, Rossini and Schumann among others. Foroni wanted to establish himself in Sweden with an opera (his opera Margherita had been a great success in Milan earlier that year). He and the company's baritone Gian Carlo Casanova, who had researched the life and literary works of Queen Cristina (1626-1689), together created Cristina, regina di Svezia. The Swedish Queen was well known to Italians: in 1654 she had abdicated from the Swedish throne, converted to Catholicism and left Sweden for Rome . Casanova dedicated his libretto to Desideria, mother of Oscar 1, and Foroni dedicated his score to the king.

The opera company included highly talented singers of the younger generation, including the 26-year-old soprano Rosina Penco (later Verdi's first Leonora in Il trovatore in 1853), the tenors Ettore Caggiati and Francesco Ciaffei, and the baritone Casanova. The premiere on 19 May 1849 was a huge success. It is vividly described in his autobiography by Hans Christian Andersen who was present at the event. Foroni remained in Sweden : appointed maestro di cappella reale in 1850 he restored the declining Royal Opera to its former glory. But his activities were abruptly cut off when he died of cholera in 1858 at the age of only 33.

The musical language of Cristina is a remarkable example of what happened in the Italian opera world (especially in Milan) after Donizetti left the scene in 1845 and Verdi took the lead in 1850 with Rigoletto. Foroni, himself a gifted conductor and with experience of the German musical world, was definitely influenced by the young Verdi (especially the first version of Macbeth in 1847 which he praised highly) but also of course by Donizetti whose operatic form is the model for Cristina . Nevertheless, it is interesting that the effective dramatic music we usually associate with Verdi was also the language of Foroni. In more than one place in the opera we can hear the sound of the future Verdi – similar music can be heard in La Traviata for example. What is perhaps more striking is the powerful orchestration. No Italian opera at this time exhibits such colour and richness of orchestral sound. This was mostly due to the teaching of Alberto Mazzucato who considered the Italians were best at vocal writing and should leave the orchestra to the Germans. Foroni's ability to write for the voice is virtuosic but also highly dramatic; and although the Donizettian model is present, he displays a distinct compositional voice of his own. If Foroni had stayed in Italy he would most certainly have been a worthy rival to Verdi.

An more detailed version of these notes can be found in the Wexford Festival programme for their 2013 performance.

© Anders Wiklund