Jessonda

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Jessonda is a would-be tragic opera in German by Louis Spohr, written in 1822, with the first performance in 1823. The Libretto was written by Eduard Gehe.

In this opera the heroine, Jessonda, widow of the Rajah, must be burned to death on his funeral pyre. Before her marriage she had been in love with a Portuguese general. A young Brahmin, Nadori, is sent from the Hindu temple to bring Jessonda the order for her death, as dictated by their customs. However, he falls in love with her sister, Amazili. The Portuguese forces that are camped outside the city are led by Tristan d'Acunha, who has sworn that Indian customs will be preserved. Nadori has vowed to save Jessonda and Tristan now discovers that she is his long lost love. The Indian breach of the truce allows Tristan to act and Jessonda is rescued in the nick of time, before Dandau, the chief Brahmin, can carry out the intended sacrifice.

While the overture to Jessonda may be heard in concert performance, the opera itself no longer holds the place it once did in operatic/theatre repertoire. Spohr, newly appointed Hofkapellmeister in Kassel, had reservations about Weber's recently performed Der Freischütz (The Marksman), and sought a subject that was poetic and uncomplicated, avoiding, in his setting, any recitive (spoken dialogue). He was opposed to the use of speech on mundane subjects in an operatic context. Ballets and spectacle were provided in set pieces that might also attract ordinary theatre-goers, in a German form of grand opera. This opera was performed regularly up to about 1860 but remains the most widely performed of Spohr's stage works.

[edit] References

N.B. Very few references on Spohr are available to the general public (except in central libraries). However, readers may find the following informative:

Louis Spohr: A Critical Biography by Clive Brown ISBN 0521029058, published by CUP.