Spohr: Jessonda - Libretto Request

[Kevin]

This is a stupendous opera isn't? One of the finest unsung operas I've ever come across. The only problem(and it's a big one) when I purchased the Orfeo recording from Presto several years ago I never got a digital booklet which includes the libretto(they don't supply it) I've searched high and low on the internet for the booklet or maybe just an English translation of the libretto... short answer is I can't find it. So, I ask if there's anyone here who knows where I can get it or has the booklet(or a website with a English translation I've missed) so I can follow this glorious opera, it would be appreciated.

[Mark Thomas]

I've PM'ed you.

[Mark Thomas]

Unfortunately I wasn't able to help Kevin, so please do contact him if you might be able to.

[tpaloj]

For now, hopefully the German libretto can serve as a start. I'll try looking for an English translation some more.

EDIT: Oh, lucky! Library of Congress had a version with both English and German text on opposite pages.

https://www.loc.gov/resource/musschatz.15256.0/?sp=4

[Kevin]

Cool! That'll do nicely. Thank you tpaloj and the unsungcomposer community, you're the best!

[tpaloj]

No problem – Library of Congress has digitized a boatload of old libretti booklets so it's a good first place to look for these in general.

[Kevin]

I hope everyone is acquainted with Jessonda because if theirs one Spohr opera you should listen to this is it. Grove considers it ''... has the most satisfactory libretto of all Spohr's operas, achieves an effective balance between musical and dramatic exigencies, and displays his melodic and harmonic gift at its most finely honed'' and Oxford Dictionary calls it, ''...has an imagination ahead of it's time'' and Brahms thought it magnificent too. The Orfeo recording is excellent as well, great all round.

[Double-A]

I am somewhat surprised at the fulsome praise this opera is getting here.  I was once part of a (somewhat cut) concert performance of "Jessonda" and I did not think it all that overwhelming.  The music is fine, in some places more than fine, especially the overture.  The libretto seems to be the work of a decent literary craftsman but come on!  A story in which a Portuguese adventurer happens to arrive in a town in India just in time to rescue a young widow from being cremated alive along with her husbands body and then marry her himself and take her to Portugal?  Tailor-made for white supremacists. 

The music would have to be a good deal more convincing to justify staging such a thing.

[Alan Howe]

Many a fine opera is based on a bonkers libretto, though. Trying to make sense of Il Trovatore, for example, has never stopped me from thoroughly enjoying the music, especially when performed by great singers. What rescues the Orfeo set is a fine orchestra and conductor (Gerd Albrecht) and operatic greats such as Julia Varady and Kurt Moll. Would that other operas could attract such a cast these days; unfortunately what we all-too often get are provincial productions, poorly sung and released on DVD for all the world to enjoy some crazy directorial trash.

To return to Jessonda, though, it's a good job the Orfeo set is so well done - because it's rather a bland opera, musically speaking.

[Mark Thomas]

Alan's right, "bland" is the word for much of Spohr's output, but I think that is the result of it sharing a certain low-level beauty which palls because of its sameness. His music is finely crafted but, despite his many experiments in form, the basic model is always the same. For me there are a few stand out works and Jessonda is certainly one of them, as are the Third and Fourth Symphonies and a couple of the Violin Concertos, but the rest is wallpaper - pleasant enough, but not memorable.

[Kevin]

Maybe his blandness for people is his heavy use of Chromaticism, even Beethoven complained about it. (I personally don't find Spohr bland, just very lyrical - which I enjoy)

[Mark Thomas]

Yes, Spohr is certainly unfailingly lyrical and I don't mind his chromaticism (though he does tend to over-do it, thereby reducing its effect), so I always find his music a pleasant listen, but the lack of strong contrast in dynamics, tempi or harmonics in many of his works makes them unmemorable. To me at least.

[Alan Howe]

I put Albrecht's Jessonda on yesterday. It's well sung, well conducted and well recorded. But it's so bland. A vanilla ice cream would be greatly preferable...

[Kevin]

Oh well, it's just me and Brahms who think it's great 

[Mark Thomas]

And that's great. Stick to your guns, it would be sooo boring if we all agreed. And Brahms is good company to keep  .