Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Haydn's operas

The operas of Joseph Haydn are far less well known today than those of his older contemporary Gluck and his younger contemporary Mozart. No Haydn opera has ever been performed on the main stages of New York's Metropolitan Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, or the San Francisco Opera, at least according to a recent search of their online archives. And the relative obscurity of his operas was true in the 18th century as well, even though by the 1790s Haydn was the most famous composer in the world.

Haydn wrote more than a dozen Italian operas, plus four Italian comedies (which, like his half-dozen German Singspiele, had spoken dialogue instead of recitative, and may have been intended for a marionette theater*). But they were not widely known because they were not generally presented in public theaters. Instead they were performed in the court theater at Esterháza, the rural Hungarian estate of the Esterházy dynasty, for a select audience of Haydn's aristocratic patrons and their guests. (After 1766 Haydn supervised all of the musical activities at the court, including more than a thousand performances of opera—many by other composers.)

But after the Esterháza musical establishment was disbanded in 1790 on the death of Haydn's principal patron Prince Nicolaus, Haydn's operas fell into a neglect from which they have yet to fully recover.

By a stroke of luck I recently came across several recordings of Haydn operas at Amoeba Music in San Francisco, and what follows is a brief survey of my impressions:

Antal Doráti and the Esterháza operas
Between 1975 and 1981 Hungarian-born conductor Antal Doráti recorded eight of the surviving Esterháza operas with the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne and a group of wonderful singers, among them Frederica von Stade, Arleen Augér, Ileana Cotrubas, Elly Ameling, Edith Mathis, Renato Bruson, Anthony Rolfe Johnson, and Benjamin Luxon. It was an extraordinary undertaking, requiring a major commitment from conductor, performers, and the Philips record label. For most of the operas it must have been the first, and for many it remains the only, recording ever attempted.

Doráti's Esterháza-sized orchestra does not play on period instruments—the early music movement was just beginning to gather momentum in the 1970s—but then there are also many modern-instrument recordings of Mozart. The one place where these versions feel dated is in Doráti's approach to the recitative, which is so deliberate that it's almost Wagnerian. Most of Haydn's operas are comedies, and so the energy can sometimes flag between the arias. But otherwise these recordings remain highly enjoyable today:

L'Incontro Improvviso (The Unexpected Meeting, 1775): A woman and her female companion(s) are abducted by a sultan and held in his harem, while her betrothed and his servant frantically try to rescue them. While imprisoned, the woman defies the sultan in a brilliant showcase aria filled with coloratura runs and leaping intervals. If you're familiar with Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Rescue from the Harem), all this probably sounds pretty familiar. But Haydn's opera was written six years before Mozart's. (Both composers were probably inspired by Gluck's 1764 opera Le recontre imprévue. Haydn's opera was a new setting of an Italian adaptation of Le recontre's French libretto, and Mozart may have seen a 1780 Vienna revival of Gluck's opera).

Apart from its "Turkish"-style music, the opera is especially notable for "Mi sembra un sogno," a lovely soprano trio for the melancholy captives. The singers are Linda Zoghby (Princess Rezia), Margaret Marshall (Balkis) and Della Jones (Dardane):


Il Mondo della Luna (The World on the Moon, 1777): With the possible exception of L’Infedeltà Delusa (Infidelity Outwitted, 1773), Il Mondo della Luna is probably Haydn's best-known opera. It features an old fool, Buonafede, who lusts after his young maid Lisetta while trying to thwart the suitors of his two daughters Flaminia and Clarice. One of the suitors, Ecclitico, convinces Buonafede that by consuming a "magic elixir" he can visit the Moon (really Ecclitico's garden). The amazed Buonafede is tricked into approving the marriages of three Moon couples—in reality, of course, the three young women and their chosen lovers. There have been several recent productions, including a delightful-looking performance in New York's Hayden Planetarium by the Gotham Chamber Opera company, directed by Diane Paulus:

Albina Shagimuratova (Flaminia), Marco Nisticò (Buonafede) and Hanan Alattar (Clarice), in Gotham Chamber Opera's production of Haydn's Il Mondo della Luna at the Hayden Planetarium. Detail of image © Richard Termine 2012

La Fedeltà Premiata (Fidelity Rewarded, 1781): A disastrous fire destroyed the opera house at Esterháza in 1779, taking with it many of Haydn's performing scores. La Fedeltà Premiata was the first opera performed in the rebuilt and expanded opera theater, and it is suitably grand. The plot is reminiscent of Mozart's Idomeneo, written at almost exactly the same time: a kingdom is plagued by a sea monster, which can only be appeased by the yearly sacrifice of two faithful lovers until a hero will offer his life in their place. The evil priest Melibeo chooses to sacrifice his rival for the affections of the flighty Amarante, Count Perrucchetto, and Celia, a faithful shepherdess who is concealing her love for the noble hunter Fileno. Many romantic misunderstandings, a parody of Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice (performed at Esterháza five years previously), and the intervention of the goddess Diana ensue before the rightful couples are united.

Here is the duet "Ah, se tu vuoi ch'io viva," in which both Celia (Lucia Valentini Terrani) and Fileno (Tonny Landy) believe they are parting forever:


Period-instrument performances with Cecilia Bartoli
Cecilia Bartoli has championed the overlooked music of many composers, and a decade ago recorded two of Haydn's late opere serie with leading period-instrument orchestras:

Armida (1784): The one thing no performance of Armida can do without is a passionate Armida, the Saracen sorceress who seduces the Christian knight Rinaldo (Christoph Prégardien) into switching sides during the siege of Jerusalem. Bartoli's portrayal conveys all of Armida's wild swings of emotion, from tenderness to anguish to implacable rage. Recorded in concert with the Concentus Musicus Wien and conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt in 2000, this version features a good supporting cast that includes Patricia Petibon as Zelmira, the sultan's daughter who falls in love with another Christian knight, Clotarco (Markus Schäfer). Harnoncourt provides plenty of drive for the infernal demons, raging storms and fierce battles depicted in Haydn's music. And Bartoli sings both thrillingly and beautifully, as in "Se pietade avete, oh Numi":


Armida was the last opera Haydn wrote for Esterháza, and it was one of the most frequently performed there. This was also the rare Haydn opera that received productions elsewhere, including Vienna, which may have led to the commission for Haydn's next (and final) opera,

L'Anima del Filosofo, ossia Orfeo ed Euridice (The Soul of the Philosopher, or Orpheus and Eurydice, 1791): After Prince Nicolaus' death in 1790 Haydn was free to accept outside (extra-Esterháza?) commissions. The impresarios Johann Salomon and Sir John Gallini brought Haydn to London and asked him to write a new set of symphonies and an opera. But the producers couldn't manage to procure a license for the King's Theater, and so today we speak of Haydn's "London Symphonies" but not his "London Opera." The first staged performance of L'Anima didn't occur until 1951; it had Erich Kleiber conducting and, as Euridice, a rising star named Maria Callas.

Bartoli was an established star when she took on the double roles of Euridice and Genio (the Sibyl who guides Orfeo (Uwe Heilman) through the Underworld) in conductor Christopher Hogwood's 1997 recording. It's a spectacular opera with a prominent role for the chorus. Here is Bartoli as Genio in the showcase aria "Al tuo seno fortunato":


L'Anima ends with the eternal loss of Euridice, the death of Orfeo, and a violent storm that sweeps away the deadly Bacchantes who are responsible for Orfeo's death. Unlike the versions by Monteverdi and Gluck, there's no happy ending here; there is, though, a lot of splendid scene-painting music.

I've been delighted to discover Haydn the opera composer. Haydn's librettos are often criticized, but they were usually written or adapted from the leading librettists of the day, including Carlo Goldoni. And the music is wonderful. There are echoes of Gluck and pre-echoes of Mozart, and most of it is superlative. I can only hope enterprising opera companies will forego the umpteenth production of L'Elisir D'Amore or Die Lustige Witwe and give us a well-staged production of a Haydn opera instead.

A (very) brief Haydn opera bibliography
A search of Worldcat turns up no books in English devoted solely to Haydn's operas. It's a striking oversight that someone should remedy as soon as possible. What I've listed below are the sources I consulted in putting together this post.

All subsequent research on Haydn owes a debt to the pathbreaking Haydn scholar H. C. Robbins Landon, who wrote a definitive five-volume critical biography of the composer (H. C. Robbins Landon, Haydn: Chronicle and Works. Indiana University Press, 1976-1980). Landon later collaborated with David Wyn Jones on a one-volume compression of that work that alternated biographical material taken from Landon's books on Haydn with chapters on his music written by Jones:
H. C. Robbins Landon and David Wyn Jones, Haydn: Life and Works. Indiana University Press, 1988.
Inspired by Robbins Landon, Nick Rossi wrote an essay on Haydn's operas for the very first issue of the scholarly journal Opera Quarterly:
Nick Rossi, "Joseph Haydn and Opera." Opera Quarterly, v. 1, issue 1, 1983. pp. 54-78.
Cambridge University Press has published a series of Companions on major composers. The volume on Haydn includes thematic essays on Haydn's sensibility, aesthetics and environment, as well as in-depth discussions of the different musical genres he essayed:
Caryl Clark, "Haydn in the theater: the operas." In Clark, Caryl (ed.): The Cambridge Companion to Haydn. Cambridge University Press, 2005.

Update 27 September 2012: For Cecilia Bartoli fans, her new recording of arias by Agostino Steffani, Mission, featuring duets with fellow E&I favorite Philippe Jaroussky, is currently available for listening—track by track or in its entirety—as one of the albums featured on NPR's First Listen.

Jaroussky was the star of the 2011 Boston Early Music Festival's production of Steffani's Niobe, Regina di Tebe; you can read my post about it here.

--

* I've since discovered (in the Rossi article) that all of Haydn's marionette operas were in German.

7 comments :

  1. Just give yourself an afternoon to sit down and listen to any of them...you will be surprised at how magnificently they unfold...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you for the wonderfully sympathetic and accurate rundown of Haydn's operas. Unfortunately, little has changed in the two years since you wrote; no new book resources, and no new recordings of complete operas either. It is a pity so many opera lovers and Haydn fans are not being served while the 200th version of '....Figaro' is being prepared....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Gurn, many thanks for your comment. I have to say that as a huge fan of Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro I can't be too upset by the preparation of its 200th (or 2000th) production. But like you I think there's definitely space in the repertory for Haydn operas. I'm heartened by the example of other 18th-century composers such as Gluck and Rameau, whose operas were rarely performed a few decades ago, but now are regularly recorded and receive productions at major opera houses. We can only hope that Haydn's time will come...

      Best,

      P.

      Delete
  3. I'm still going strong with these fabulous operas !

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Rena, I'm glad that you continue to find pleasure in Haydn's delightful operas. I keep hoping that one of our adventurous local opera companies or orchestras that perform semi-staged vocal works (such as the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra) will consider including Haydn operas in their programming. Until then, the the older recordings conducted by Dorati and the more recent ones featuring Cecilia Bartoli definitely reward repeated listening.

      Thanks for your comment!

      Delete
  4. The San Francisco Opera performed Haydn's 1782 opera "Orlando Paladino" in the 1980s (I assumed that this was on the main stage, though might be wrong). Handel's opera "Orlando" was also performed by the SF Opera (in the Handel tercentenary year; 1985). I attended both operas and also remember that a music critic for one of the SF newspapers - when commenting about aspects of humor in "Orlando Paladino" - noted that, the humor (maybe irony/sardonic wit) is strongest at the times when the work is at its most "serious". In terms of other Haydn opera performances at major opera houses, a production of "L'incontro improvviso" from Bordeaux is available on Youtube, and Covent Garden has staged at least one Haydn opera (possibly "Orfeo/L' anima del Filosofo" or "Armida").
    The complete Haydn edition, finished in the 2010s, includes all Haydn's surviving operatic music, including the insertion arias/scenas that he wrote for inclusion in operas by other composers at Eszterháza.
    Martin F. Heyworth (Philadelphia)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello, Martin: Many thanks for your comment! I checked with the SF Opera Archives (the site is currently down, but they respond to email requests). I believe that the "Orlando Paladino" production you mention many have been Vivaldi's "Orlando Furioso." It was performed on the main stage in the 1989-1990 season, and featured Marilyn Horne (Orlando), Jeffrey Gall (Ruggiero), and Kathleen Kuhlmann (Alcina), conducted by Randall Behr. The performance was released on video and can be found on YouTube. The archives confirmed that there has been no "Orlando Paladino" production on the main stage or by the touring companies of SFO, alas.

      You're absolutely right about the production of Handel's "Orlando" in the 1985-86 season; the company mounted a new production in the 2018-19 season which I wrote about on this blog: Reason destroyed by love.

      Many thanks as well for pointing out the Haydn productions from Bordeaux and Covent Garden. I will definitely keep an eye out on YouTube and streaming services for these and other productions of his underperformed works. And the insertion arias/scenas available through the complete Haydn edition sound very much worth exploring. It's great to find another fan--thank you for sharing these opportunities to enjoy Haydn's delightful operas.

      Delete