La Reine de Chypre: an overview of the work

An exceptionally precocious composer, awarded the Premier Grand Prix de Rome for composition just after his twentieth birthday, Fromental Halévy limited his ambitions to the production of light works (opéras comiques, ballets…) for fifteen years before being catapulted to the heights of fame enjoyed by his elders, Rossini, Auber and Meyerbeer, by the premiere of La Juive at the Paris Opéra. The powerful subject and the quality of Eugène Scribe’s libretto also played their part in this success, which was to last for a century; the subsequent fruits of their collaboration for the leading French opera house (Guido et Ginevra in 1838, then Le Drapier in 1840) did not enjoy such lasting popularity. La Reine de Chypre almost suffered the same fate but, after a fairly lukewarm public reception at the Paris Opéra on 22 December 1841, the work became an established favourite.