(III) Opera impresario, 1776–90.

In 1778 Haydn sold his house in Eisenstadt; the court now stayed at Eszterháza at least ten months every year, and he increasingly spent the short winter season in Vienna (see §3(iv)). The very long stays at Eszterháza were linked to Nicolaus's reorganization of the theatrical entertainment there in 1776. Now there was a regular ‘season’ each year, comprising opera, stage plays and marionette operas (in a separate small theatre); in principle there was theatrical entertainment every evening the prince was in residence. At first, stage plays predominated (184 evenings in 1778, as opposed to only 50 operas – and only two musical academies; four others took place during the day, in the ‘apartments’), but the number of opera evenings increased steadily, reaching a high of 124 or 125 in 1786. New productions were henceforth not grand, ‘occasional’ events, but a regular occurrence; in 1776 there were five, and in the banner year 1786 there were eight, together with nine revivals. Under these conditions Haydn could not compose more than a small fraction of what was needed, nor were new works commissioned from other composers. Instead, operas were acquired from Vienna, where there were many productions and a lively trade in copying; it is not known how many were selected by the prince or Haydn during their brief winter sojourns. Some were acquired by agents (e.g. Nunziato Porta, the librettist of Orlando paladino), others supplied by newly arrived singers etc., and still others purchased from archives and estates (Dittersdorf sold the court several of his own operas in 1776). The up-to-date repertory centred on opera buffa: the composer represented by the greatest number of productions from 1776 to 1790 was Cimarosa (13), followed in order by Anfossi, Paisiello, Sarti and Haydn (seven), and 24 other composers with fewer.

Once it was decided to produce a given opera, Haydn was responsible for any musical alterations that might be required, supervising the copying of parts, rehearsing the singers and orchestra, and conducting all the performances – for no fewer than 88 productions in the 15 years from 1776 to 1790. This was by any reckoning a full-time job, even if one does not count his own new stage works, of which six originated between 1777 and 1783, or almost one per year. First came a dramma giocoso by Goldoni, Il mondo della luna (given on 3 August 1777, on the marriage of Nicolaus's younger son). La vera costanza (1778–9) is the subject of implausible and conflicting anecdotes in Griesinger and Dies, according to which it was originally commissioned for the Burgtheater in Vienna but scuttled by intrigue (neither Joseph II nor his musicians were well-disposed towards Haydn); in fact it had its première at Eszterháza, on 25 April 1779. It was lost in the fire that largely destroyed the Eszterháza opera theatre on 18 November 1779; the surviving version represents Haydn's reconstruction of the work from 1785. It is a measure of the prince's commitment (or obsession) that an opera was given just three days after the fire, in the marionette theatre, which had been hastily adapted for staged opera (yet another noble marriage was to be celebrated). Haydn's L'isola disabitata to a libretto by Metastasio also had its première on schedule on 6 December (the prince's nameday). Next came La fedeltà premiata (1780; given on 25 February 1781, on the inauguration of the rebuilt opera house). In 1783 Haydn took the unusual step of publishing the great scena for Celia in Act 2, ‘Ah, come il core … Ombra del caro bene’, in full score; it received a detailed and laudatory review by C.F. Cramer in his Magazin der Musik. Haydn's last two Eszterháza operas were Orlando paladino (1782, for the prince's nameday) and Armida (1783; given 26 February 1784). The later 1770s saw three German marionette operas, also all lost in the 1779 fire: Dido (1776), Vom abgebrannten Haus (date uncertain) and Die bestrafte Rachbegierde (1779; its production can be inferred only from the printed libretto); the occasionally seen Die Feuersbrunst is either spurious or represents an arrangement of Vom abgebrannten Haus.

After 1783 Haydn composed no more operas for the court. It is not known why he abandoned the genre, which he had cultivated intensively since 1766 and in which he was proud of his achievements (see §6 below), or how he persuaded the prince to consent at a time when the number of productions was still rising. Perhaps he was increasingly drawn to his new career as composer of instrumental music for publication (see §(iv) below). In any case all his other duties for the court theatre remained in force; in particular he still revised the operas in production to suit his provincial stage and limited personnel. Haydn made many cuts, both of entire numbers and within them, re-orchestrated (often adding winds), changed tempos (usually speeding them up) and ‘tailored’ arias to ‘fit’ his singers, as Mozart would have said. He composed about 20 substitute (‘insertion’) arias (hXXIVb) as well as long passages within numbers not rejected as a whole.

The majority of the insertion arias and simplifications were composed for Luigia Polzelli, a young Italian mezzo-soprano who joined the troupe in March 1779 along with her much older husband, a violinist. Both proved inadequate and were dismissed in December 1780 – but promptly rehired: Luigia and Haydn had become lovers, a relationship that, like so many in that milieu, was probably an open secret. (Haydn told Griesinger that the painter Ludwig Guttenbrunn had been his wife's lover during his stay at the court in 1770–72.) While at Eszterháza Luigia gave birth to her second son, Antonio, in 1783. He and his mother believed that Haydn was the father (there is no evidence of such a belief on Haydn's part); he became a professional musician and was appointed to the Esterházy orchestra in 1803. Haydn was well disposed towards him, and even more towards his elder brother Pietro (b 1777); he taught them both music and maintained contact with them throughout his life. As for Luigia, following the dissolution of the Kapelle in 1790 Haydn attempted to procure engagements for her in Italy; however, he would not have her with him in London, even though her sister was engaged there as a singer (see §4 below). Although there are no letters from the 1780s by which we might assess the nature of their feelings, he wrote to her often (in Italian) during his first London visit. Those up to early spring 1792 are ardent: ‘Perhaps I shall never regain the good humour that I used to have with you; you are always in my heart, and I shall never, never forget you … Think from time to time about your Haydn, who esteems you and loves you tenderly, and will always be faithful to you’ (14 January). But those from May and June are notably cooler – he had entered a new relationship – and none survives from his second London visit. He acceded to Polzelli's requests for money, but not always immediately or in the demanded amount, while complaining (misleadingly) how little he had, as well as (accurately) how hard he had to work.

The vastly increased operatic and theatrical activity at the Esterházy court from 1776 on led to an equally drastic reduction in the performance of instrumental music. As noted above, only six ‘academies’ were listed for the entire year 1778 (all in January and February). Presumably the prince simply lost interest; even Haydn's stream of baryton works began to dry up after 1773 and ceased entirely about 1775, following the octets hX:1–6. The symphony, from the late 1750s to 1775 the one constant in Haydn's output, declined as well; only nine were completed in the six years 1776–81 (nos.53, 61–3, 70–71, 73–5), none at all in 1777 or the first half of 1778. Even these few symphonies often include adaptations of stage music. No.63 in C begins with the overture to Il mondo della luna, and the slow movement (‘La Roxelane’) is based on a theme from a stage play; the slow movement of no.73, ‘La chasse’, uses his own lied Gegenliebe and the finale recycles the overture to La fedeltà premiata. He even recycled the overture hIa:7 twice, in the finale of one version of no.53 (‘Imperial’) and the opening movement of no.62. From this time on, the Esterházy court was no longer the primary destination for Haydn’s instrumental music.

Haydn, Joseph, §3: Esterházy, 1761–90