Fantastic plots and exuberant, imaginative music. This is what distinguishes Joseph Haydn’s operas. Inspiration for expansions to the repertoire – and not only for the 2032 Haydn year.

“When I want to see a good opera, I go to Eszterház”, Empress Maria Theresia is supposed to have once said. In fact, the operas staged by Prince Nikolaus Esterházy “the Magnificent”, dazzled with their oustanding musical quality, colourful costumes, characterful set designs and opulent décor. The latest operatic hits were performed here, and H. C. Robbins Landon even hypothesised that “Amongst all the great composers, apart from Handel and Verdi, Haydn probably had the greatest experience in the practical business of opera”. On special occasions such as state visits, dynastic celebrations or name days, court Kapellmeister Joseph Haydn himself reached for his pen and composed new works. Haydn’s operatic output, now as then, far too little-known, comprises over twenty works in quite different genres: from Italian comedies to intermezzi, to azione teatrale, as well as puppet operas and Singspiels in the German language. Despite this extensive body of works for music theatre, on looking back Haydn said to his biographer Georg August Griesinger that “instead of the many quartets, sonatas and symphonies, [he] should have written more music for voice”. With this he meant first and foremost opera, the central genre of the 18th century.

Not only for this reason is it always worthwhile rediscovering Haydn’s operas: “Il mondo della luna” (“The World on the Moon”) presented Prince Nikolaus Esterházy’s wedding guests with the illusion of a gloriously colourful “world on the moon” with extraordinary imagination and playfulness. It reveals the human longing for the discovery and exploration of unknown spaces and for overcoming “natural” borders. The fact that the “world on the moon” is ruled by the servant Cecco as “emperor of the moon” can be interpreted as a socio-critical statement at a time of late absolutism. At the same time we are witnesses to an elaborate game of intrigue by the supposed astrologer Eclittico at the cost of the innocently trusting Buonafede, with which Eclittico wins his beloved Clarice by devious means.

Buonafede’s “journey” to the moon is set in a musically remarkable way: “Vado, vado, volo, volo.” Eclittico’s garden, transformed into a lunar landscape, is astonishingly described by Buonafede in “Che mondo amabile” and colourfully depicted by eight wind instruments. Natural sounds imitated by the instrumental accompaniment also add to the change between stage reality and stage imagination. Last but not least, Buonafede appears fascinated by the language of the moon’s inhabitants, which he (and not only he) does not understand, but which nevertheless sounds especially charming with its distinctive phonetic sounds (“Luna, lena, lino, lana”).

The dramma eroicomico “Orlando paladino” (“The Paladin Orlando”) transports us into an unreal medieval world, in which the sorceress Alcina spins the threads. The role of Orlando’s squire Pasquale is a showpiece for a bass-buffo. With “Ho viaggiato in Francia, in Spagna”, Haydn places himself in the tradition of the catalogue aria: Pasquale attempts to impress the shepherdess Eurilla with various heroic deeds. In “Ecco spiano”, with a vocal range from B to e’’, the singer imitates both the playing of a violin as well as castrato singing, often caricatured and exaggerated by contemporaries. The “tralarala” in the Cavatina “La mia bella m’ha detto di no” could be an indication that the singer should dance to his song. In the Cavatina “Vittoria, vittoria!”, scored with timpani and trumpets, battle music is also parodied.

In the meantime, the sorceress Alcina transforms not only the title hero into a stone, but she can also overcome spaces and times with her supernatural powers. And so the participants again find themselves in the third act in a Greek-mythological setting: with the help of the ferryman Caronte, who brings people over the river Lethe into the realm of shadows, she ensures that Roland forgets his previous torments of love, thus all the entanglements are resolved.

During Haydn’s lifetime “Orlando paladino” was performed in cities including Pressburg, Prague, Brno, Budapest, Dresden, Mannheim, Frankfurt, Hanover, Berlin and St. Petersburg, frequently in German translation. The work thereby became the composer’s most successful opera.

The most frequently-performed opera at the Esterházy court, where opere serie were also increasingly performed from 1783, was Haydn’s dramma eroico “Armida” which opened the 1784 season, with 54 performances. The sorceress Armida loves the crusader Rinaldo, who is en route to Jerusalem with his army, and tries in every imaginable way to bind herself to him. Her fury is flung at Rinaldo in the agitated vengeance aria “Odio, furor, dispetto”. In the third act Armida finally entices Rinaldo into a magical enchanted forest, at the centre of which stands a myrtle which symbolises her power. The forest is peopled with supernatural beings: in a great through-composed scene, nymphs at first try to beguile the crusader. We hear a brook and chirping birds. Then nature turns into a threatening, hostile environment, and Rinaldo is threatened by terrifying furies.

In “Armida” Haydn used a means we are familiar with from Mozart’s “Così fan tutte” and “Don Giovanni”: he links the Overture with the ensuing plot – more precisely with the magical forest scene – and thus creates a musical link around the opera. The male protagonist Rinaldo, who at the end turns out to be unwavering, is portrayed as both a strong warrior and an affectionate lover in his great aria “Vado a pugnar contento”. Here, Haydn’s music can be seen as a direct expression of the knight’s feelings, wavering between duty and inclination, and at the same time as an expression of the outside world. And the theme of war also includes a march for wind instruments, which the movement on the stage coordinates.

With “Armida”, Haydn bid farewell to the operatic stage at the Esterházy court. Following the death of Prince Nikolaus, he had the opportunity to travel to London and to get to know the rich musical life of the music capital of Europe. He was to contribute to this himself with the dramma per musica “L’anima del filosofo ossia Orfeo ed Euridice” which he composed during his first stay in London for the King’s Theatre. During the preparations Haydn told his new employer Prince Anton that “the opera [is] much interwoven with choruses, and ballets and many great alterations [the set designs]”.

The Orpheus legend, in which a touching love story combines with the demonstration of the power of music, can be regarded as the quintessential opera plot. However, as Haydn himself remarked, the libretto is “of a quite different kind than that of Gluck”. Haydn emphasized the classical-mythological subject by the increased use of choruses, and in Orfeo’s accompagnato “Rendete a questo seno” by the use of a harp. He also used clarinets, which were not heard in the regular forces at Eszterháza, in “L’anima del filosofo”. The choruses of furies and Bacchantes were accompanied by trombones. The death of Euridice is particularly moving in its musical fading away. Contrasting with this, the singer of the role of Genio can show off her special virtuosity in her aria.

But the theatre could not be opened, and so the work was not performed. It is disputed whether Haydn had already completed the opera. Whilst he wrote of a five-act conception in his letters, in its surviving form “L’anima del filosofo” only comprises four acts; this could therefore be a fragment. The significance of the title is also shrouded in mystery. So certain questions remain unresolved. But for a production, this openness can have a special attraction.

Christine Siegert
(translation: Elizabeth Robinson – from [t]akte 1/2025)