the full score of the complete opera in three acts (1810, with autograph revisions for Cassel in 1840), inscribed on the autograph title page "romantische Oper in 3 Acten, Musik von Louis Spohr...Komp: im Sommer 1810", notated for voices and orchestra in dark brown ink on up to fourteen staves per page, with a list of the characters facing the first page of music; THE REVISIONS COMPRISING: the addition of two extra trombone parts (both in the staves and at the end of the numbers affected), re-written passages on inserted leaves (bluish paper), the old passages deleted in red crayon, with other alterations and notes to the copyist ("Durch die ganze Oper in Sopranschlussel") in red crayon and brown ink (extensive in nos 2 and 13), and [spoken?] cues added by the composer in pencil ("Die trübe Stimmung giebt mir ein schmerzliches Gefühl"; "Die Unterhaltung muß ich stören"; "Kannst du mir vergeben? Aus der Fulle meines Herzens"; "Verwandlung")

2 volumes, c.500 pages, oblong folio (c.21 x 33.5cm), 14-stave hand-ruled paper (the revisions on 16-stave machine-ruled paper) the acts foliated by the composer 1-108 and 1-81 (in ink) and 1-65 (in pencil), untrimmed, early twentieth-century vellum boards, manuscript titles to spines, [Gotha, late Spring to November 1810; revisions: Cassel, 1840]

F. Göthel, Thematisch-bibliographisches Verzeichnis der Werke von Louis Spohr (1981), WoO 50, pp.327-332; Der Zweikampf mit der Geliebten : Arien und Gesänge ; romant. Singspiel in 3 Abth. (Cassel: Aubel 1840).

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Der Zweikampf mit der Geliebten was the first of Spohr's operas to be publicly staged, on 15 November 1811, written to a commission from the new director of the Hamburg Opera, the libretto by J.F. Schink.  The characters are named as Mathilde (Pfalzgrafin von Standern), Isabelle (her daughter) & Laurette (sopranos); Enrigue (Graf von Lothringen) and Alberto (tenors) and Gaston (Prinz von Beare) and Decio (basses), together with three non-singing roles: Lothario, Porzia and Flora. Spohr revived the opera in Cassel in 1840 and it seems likely that he made the revisions found here at that time.  These include expanding the brass, now with three trombones rather than the single instrument recorded by Göthel. The new passages are written on apparently later machine-ruled paper, and the script also appears to be later than the original draft of the manuscript.  The pencil cues for spoken dialogue possibly also date from the revision: the libretto for the 1840 performance now describes it as a Singspiel: Der Zweikampf mit der Geliebten: Arien und Gesänge; romant. Singspiel in 3 Abth.

The opera has been published only in vocal score: by J.A. Böhme of Hamburg in 1813 and in Paris in c.1825.  There is also a modern edition by Horst Vladar, published in the series Opera rara: ausgewählte und unbekannte Opernwerke aus dem 18. und 19. Jahrhundert, volume 4 (2015)