Franz Schubert and His World by Gibbs Christopher H. Solvik Morten

Author:Gibbs, Christopher H., Solvik, Morten
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2014-01-28T16:00:00+00:00

Figure 1. Playbill of Alfonso und Estrella, Weimar 1854.

Contrary to Liszt’s view, composition of the opera proceeded with somewhat less haste and spontaneity than was often the case with Schubert, and for the most part in a more relaxed and concentrated manner. Schubert began the first act toward the end of September 1821. His librettist arranged for the two of them to work together without distraction at St. Pölten, where the bishop, a relative of the librettist, gave them accommodations. They returned to Vienna before the second act was finished. Encouraged again at the end of the year to resume work, composer and librettist completed the opera sometime in February.

The reader will notice that I have failed to mention the name of Franz von Schober, the librettist of Alfonso und Estrella, a somewhat disingenuous way of calling attention to the similar omission on the part of Liszt, who in his essay does not once identify him by name, although he does not hold back in criticizing the inadequacy of the libretto. Whether consciously or not, this omission could hardly have been inadvertent, as the reader will come to understand. Liszt’s relationship to Schober, which lasted for more than a decade, is an integral part of the story that would eventually lead to the first performance of Alfonso und Estrella by Liszt, an “act of reverence,” “the settlement of a debt of honor,” he writes, but one that, as Maria Eckhardt has rightly argued, “probably precipitated the alienation of their friendship.”2

Franz von Schober is well known as an intimate and influential member of Schubert’s circle, and his close friendship with the composer is also well documented. His relationship to Liszt is less familiar and for the most part haphazardly documented, with inaccuracies and lacunae that await clarification. In the meantime, what interests us is the role he played in connection with Liszt’s premiere of Schubert’s opera. It is not clear when they first met, probably sometime during the late 1830s. In the documented record we encounter them together for the first time in Pest during Liszt’s return to his native Hungary from December of 1839 to the end of January 1840—after his childhood one of the most famous and colorful episodes of his career. The central image amid the nationalistic fervor that accompanied Liszt during those weeks is the famous “sabre of honor” presented to him at his concert at the Hungarian National Theater by a small group of noblemen and civic officials. The entire episode—idolatrous outpourings about Liszt by the Hungarian press, Liszt parading in the streets of Pest in Hungarian costume, attempts to remake him as a symbol of Magyar nationalism—became easy prey for the European press, especially French journalists, who ridiculed his posturing, the presentation of the sabre, and much else. Liszt, with the aid of his mistress Marie d’Agoult, made repeated attempts at damage control, but the whole affair made him keenly defensive over his seriousness of purpose as an artist, his pride in and his fervor over his homeland.

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