Page 89 - FINAL_Guildhall Media Highlights 2019-2020 Coverage Book

Haydn’s opera mixes seria and buffa elements, and while it delights in ridiculing
classical pomp and presumption - the Act 2 finale openly parodies the coro di Furie from
Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice - there are also moments of genuine pathos and musical
th
sincerity. First performed at Eszterháza on 25 February 1781, La fedeltà
premiata celebrated the reopening of the court theatre after a fire. It was much admired:
revised in 1782, it went on to receive 36 performances in four seasons, second only in
popularity to Haydn’s dramma eroico, Armida; in 1784 a performance was given, in
German translation, by Schikaneder’s troupe in Vienna. Thereafter it fell into obscurity,
though the overture remained familiar - in its guise as the finale of his Symphony
No.73, La Chasse - and one scene (Celia’s ‘Ah come il core’) was published as a cantata
for soprano and orchestra.

The dismantled and dispersed manuscript was eventually ‘rediscovered’ in Turin and in
1968 a complete score was published for the first time by Henle-Verlag. The first modern
performance took place at the Holland Festival in 1970, the first UK staged performance
occurred as part of the Camden Festival in April 1971, and since then both Glyndebourne
(1979) and Garsington (1995) have presented productions, as have some of London’s
conservatoires.

If La fedeltà premiata has, like the dozen so operas by Haydn that have survived,
struggled to find a foothold in the opera house, then it can’t be denied that Haydn did
give his audience at Eszterháza much eventful extravagance and spectacle. Sea-monsters
and satyrs are on the rampage. A wild boar separates the heroes from the hysterics,
sending the philandering ‘Count’ Perrucchetto - whose name literally means ‘wig-maker’
- clambering up a tree-cum-stepladder, while the noble Fileno shows his mettle by
slaying the beast.

Eline Vandenheede (Amaranta), Adam Maxey (Melibeo). Photo credit: Mihaela Bodlovic.