Franz Schubert’s Alfonso and Estrella: Concerning the Origins of the Plotline

Abstract

Alfonso und Estrella, the only opera composed by Franz Schubert without spoken dialogue, was created in collaboration with one of the composer’s closest friends, Franz von Schober. Despite the fact that a significant amount is known about the circumstances of the libretto’s origin, we can only surmise regarding the sources on which its creator relied. In the literature about Schubert, a number of assumptions are made about these sources — two books on the history of Spain published in Germany in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, as well as a number of works by German romantic writers. This article discusses other books which in all possibility served as source materials: History of Spain by Alexander Adam (Adams Geschichte von Spanien seit der Entdeckung bis zur Thron-Entsagung Karls IV), published in Vienna in 1809, as well as a number of librettos that may have been known to Schober — first of all, Der Taucher by Samuel Bürde, written for Johann Friedrich Reichardt and published in 1811 in Berlin. Based on the analysis of the plot and the poetic text of Alfonso und Estrella, it is shown that Schober was most likely familiar with these sources and actively used them when creating his own libretto.