200 Years, Anniversary Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)
haydnmania: the 2009 anniversaryArchive for December, 2009
Il mondo della luna – premiere
picture: ©Theater an der Wien
Have you ever flown to the moon thanks to nothing more than the power of your own imagination? In the summer of 1777, Joseph Haydn sent the guests at the prince’s wedding in Esterházy Palace into the fantastic universe with the aid of their imagination, some 190 years before the first moon landing. For “Il mondo della luna” he turned to a source that had already been successfully used for a number of operas and was written originally by the Italian comic poet Carlo Goldoni. Haydn created a work focusing on human longings, the fabled moon and a world turned on its head.
Ecclitico is in pursuit of Clarice while Ernesto loves her sister Flaminia. But Buonafede, the father of the two young ladies and an amateur astronomer, is strictly opposed to these matches. He is also suspicious of the growing affection his servant Cecco is showing towards the maid Lisetta, especially since he has his own designs on her. But the young lovers refuse to give in to pressure. They trick the moonstruck Buonafede into believing he has been transported to the moon. A journey of discovery into outer space and the joys of love merge in the family garden into an increasingly manic muddle. The result: a bull’s eye! At the end a triple wedding is in the offing!
In Haydn’s musical evocation of the surface of the moon, there are fragrant flowers and lush woodland instead of rocks and dust, birdsong and lyrically brilliant arias instead of silence. Haydn was internationally renowned for his operas all his life and was even invited to undertake spectacular journeys to England. No wonder, because this score by the wittiest composer of Viennese classical music is simply bursting with creativity and is perfect for becoming “moonstruck”!
Il mondo della luna
composer: Joseph Haydn, in 1777
libretto: Carlo Goldoni
conductor: Nikolaus Harnoncourt
director: Tobias Moretti
orchestra: Concentus Musicus Vienna ( N. Harnoncourt’s orchestra)
Premiere: Sat, 05.12.2009 – 7:00 p.m.
