Alfonso und Estrella

Alfonso und Estrella (Alfonso and Estrella), D 732, is an opera with music by Franz Schubert, set to a German libretto by Franz von Schober, written in 1822. Along with the later Fierrabras, composed in 1823, it marks Schubert's attempt to compose grand Romantic opera in German, departing from the Singspiel tradition. Unlike Fierrabras, it contains no spoken dialogue.

In close collaboration with von Schober in the region of Sankt Pölten, Schubert wrote the music for Alfonso und Estrella between September 1821 and February 1822. Schober, only one year older than the young Schubert, and a dabbler in literature, music and theatre, was enthusiastic about the collaboration. Schubert and Schober shared an appreciation for the operatic theories of Ignaz von Mosel (), a patron of Schubert's, who supported Gluck's operatic ideals. This influence may have led to the omission of all spoken dialog, parting from the German Singspiel form followed in operas such as Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, Beethoven's Fidelio, and Carl Maria von Weber's Der Freischütz.

Schubert never heard the opera performed in his lifetime. Opera houses in Vienna, Berlin, Dresden and Graz all had refused to stage it. The opera received its premiere performance in Weimar on 24 June 1854, conducted by Franz Liszt. Liszt had published an essay on the opera in advance of the first Weimar performance, and also had made cuts to the score for the production. Subsequent productions in the 1880s were in Karlsruhe, Vienna and Berlin. The first UK stage premiere was at Reading University Opera on 22 February 1977. The opera did not receive a complete, uncut performance; even the realisations in Graz (1991) and Vienna (1997, conducted by Harnoncourt) had been shortened.

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