About the work
"Jessonda" is a grand opera in three acts by Louis Spohr, with a libretto by Eduard Heinrich Gehe based on Antoine-Marin Lemierre's play "La Veuve du Malabar." It premiered on July 28, 1823, at the Kurfürstliches Hoftheater in Kassel, conducted by Spohr himself.
Plot
In early-16th-century Goa, the widowed rajah's wife Jessonda is to be sacrificed against her will to the custom of widow-burning. The Portuguese commander Tristan da Cunha, once her betrothed, fights alongside his countrymen to save her; in the end, love triumphs over custom and coercion.
Cultural significance
"Jessonda" was the only one of Spohr's operas to remain in the international repertoire until the end of the 19th century; it was revised for London's Covent Garden in 1852, and Spohr himself conducted a performance there in 1853.