La reine de Chypre, first performed at the Salle Le Peletier of the Paris Opéra on 22 December 1841 with Rosine Stoltz in the title role and Gilbert Duprez as Gérard, was regarded in its time as one of the composer's greatest achievements.

Joseph Mazilier was the choreographer, and the ballet starred Adéle Dumilâtre, Natalie Fitzjames, and Pauline Leroux with Marius Petipa and Auguste Mabile.

The opera prompted an extended eulogy from Richard Wagner, who was present at the first night, in the Dresden Abend-Zeitung, for which he was a correspondent.

The libretto, or a version of it, was used by several other composers within a three-year period: Franz Lachner (1841), Michael Balfe (1844), and Gaetano Donizetti (1843), whose Caterina Cornaro is based on an Italian translation.

Enter Gérard, as a Knight of Malta - he announces that the King is fact dying of Venetian poison and hopes that he can still be saved.

[7] Although he felt the opera did not reach the level of the composer's La Juive, he wrote 'the Opéra may congratulate itself on the birth of this work, for it is decidedly the best that has appeared on its boards since Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots '.

However, George Sand, who was also at the premiere, wrote to Eugène Delacroix: With Véronique Gens (Catarina Cornaro), Cyrille Dubois (Gérard de Coucy), Éric Huchet (Mocénigo), Étienne Dupuis (Jacques de Lusignan), Christophoros Stamboglis (Andrea Cornaro), Artavazd Sargsyan (Strozzi).