In January 1849, while conducting a variety of Italian operas at 'the smaller theatre scene' in Stockholm for the Vincenzo Galli opera company, Jacopo Foroni started his work on the opera build on Cristina, queen of Sweden. This was primarily to introduce himself to Swedish audiences, but was also a tribute to the monarch who had abdicated, converted to Catholicism, and left her homeland for Italy.

The opera is about Queen Cristina's abdication and tells the story in five scenes

(Love, Marriage, Conspiracy, The Lost dream, Abdication). In true 19th century fashion the cause of the abdication was not her conversion to catholicism but her love of Magnus Gabriele and the future King Carl Gustav.