Joseph Haydn has undoubtedly been one of the winners in opera programmes in recent years, and particularly in his anniversary year. Here we take a glance at two of his most popular works: L’isola disabitata and L’infedeltà delusa.
L'isola disabitata
Without any exaggeration, the Haydn Year 2009 can be described as a Haydn Opera Year. Not only are all of Haydn’s operas now available on CD (except for the fragmentary surviving La Marchesa Nespola), but numerous opera houses and festivals have adopted Haydn as an opera composer. In the Haydn Complete Edition, the opera series has been completed with the publication of L’isola disabitata, the ‘azione teatrale’ composed in 1779. In many respects this represents a special case amongst Haydn’s works.
In L’isola disabitata Haydn disregarded the musical conventions of his day by orchestrating all the recitatives and thus altering the traditional contrast between recitatives and arias. What resulted is a chamber music work which, in the concentration on just four protagonists and an exotic setting, reveals a musical and human-psychological cosmos. The deeply wounded Costanza assumes that her new husband Gernando had left her behind on a deserted island thirteen years ago; because of Costanza’s constant complaints about the cruelty of men, her younger sister Silvia has developed a panic fear of these creatures unknown to her, a fear which she shakes off in the course of the plot in her first amorous encounters. After many years in captivity, Gernando returns to the island to look for his beloved Costanza, accompanied by his friend Enrico who owes his life to Gernando and attracts the attention of Silvia, to her great surprise. A happy end is inevitable. It is easy to understand how this chamber opera has appealed to so many theatres in the Haydn Year. Staged performances have taken place in Biel-Solothurn, Bamberg, Innsbruck and further afield.
The new edition offers two versions of the work for the first time: the version used for the first performance, plus a fundamental reworking of the piece which Haydn undertook in 1802 with a planned printing of the piece in mind. The inclusion of two versions enables a closer examination of Haydn’s operatic working methods and offers a choice for performances between the versions authorised by the composer. Haydn himself was convinced of the quality of the piece. He regarded “this opera as a good model for budding composers, because of the recitatives; it is a little work which in its present form should be performed in every private theatre”.
L'infedeltà delusa
Another popular opera in the Haydn Year is the comic opera L’infedeltà delusa, which was performed in Potsdam, amongst other places. In his so-called autobiographical sketch of 1776, Haydn numbered the piece, composed three years previously, amongst his works which had “received the greatest applause”.
Dramatically and musically, L’infedeltà delusa works with typical buffo comedy, with disguises, pretences, transformations and confusions. They serve to prevent Sandrina’s planned wedding to the rich farmer Nencio and instead, to bring together the pairs of lovers. Haydn proves himself as a specialist in musical disguise by translating the different appearances by the characters into his own musical setting. He also developed the feelings of the protagonists with great clarity.
The first performance took place on the name-day of Prince Nikolaus Esterházy’s sister-in-law, the Empress Maria Theresia, with Haydn as music director. The opera was revived on the occasion of a visit by Maria Theresia to Schloss Eszterháza, where it was performed “with great success” as part of the splendid festivities. The fact that Haydn’s talents were “known throughout Europe”, as reported in the account of the events published in Vienna, also reflected well on the Prince according to 18th century opinion, who thus demonstrated his discriminating taste.
The breadth of Haydn’s work as a composer for music theatre was shown not only in his other operas, such as the imaginative Il mondo della luna and the heroic Armida, but also by his marionette opera Philemon und Baucis which opened the puppet theatre in Eszterháza during the celebrations. Keeping this facet of his output alive remains a worthwhile and enriching task for the future. The Empress Maria Theresia at any rate proved very pleased with Haydn’s opera: “If I want to hear a good opera”, she is said to have said, “I go to Esterháza.”
Christine Siegert
(translation: Elizabeth Robinson)
from [t]akte 2/2009
Inevitable happy ends. Operas in the Haydn Year 2009
Joseph Haydn
L’isola disabitata. Azione teatrale in due atti.
Libretto: Pietro Metastasio
Edited by Günther Thomas, Christine Siegert and Ulrich Wilker
Cast: Costanza, Gernando’s wife (soprano), Silvia (soprano), Gernando, Costanza’s husband (tenor), Enrico, Gernando’s friend (baritone)
Orchestra: 1,2,0,1 – 2,0,0,0 – timpani – strings
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L’infedeltà delusa. Burletta per musica in due atti.
Libretto: Marco Coltellini. Edited by Dénes Bartha and Jenö Vecsey
Cast: Vespina (soprano), Sandrina (soprano), Filippo (tenor), Nencio (tenor), Nanni (bass)
Orchestra: 0,2,0,2 – 2,0,0,0 – timpani – strings – basso continuo
Publishers: score available from Henle Verlag (in the Haydn Complete Edition); vocal score available from on sale from Bärenreiter (Italian/German); performance material available on hire.
Photos: "L'infedeltà delusa” at Musikfestspiele Potsdam 2009 (Copyright: Monika Rittershaus)