Overture for an English Opera, Hob. Ia:3 (L'Anima de Filosofo, Hob. XXVIII:13; Orfeo ed Euridice) [critical edition]: Full Orchestra Conductor Score & Parts

Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) composed the Overture for an English Opera, Hob. Ia:3 in 1791 as the introduction to L'anima del filosofo, ossia Orfeo ed Euridice, Hob. XXVIII:13, his final opera and the only opera he wrote during his celebrated London years. Haydn had arrived in London at the beginning of 1791 and was commissioned to write an Italian opera for the newly rebuilt King's Theatre in the Haymarket. Carlo Francesco Badini supplied a libretto based on the ancient myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, but political and theatrical rivalry prevented the theatre from obtaining the necessary license, and the projected production (planned for May 31, 1791) was suppressed before it could reach the stage. The opera consequently remained unperformed throughout Haydn's lifetime, making its overture an unusual surviving monument to an important London project that audiences of his own day never had the opportunity to hear as intended. The dramatic orchestral introduction anticipates the opera's unusually dark treatment of the Orpheus legend and displays the vigor, harmonic tension, and sophisticated orchestral writing of Haydn's mature London period, qualities that allow it to function effectively as an independent concert overture. L'anima del filosofo finally received its staged world premiere on June 9, 1951, at the Teatro della Pergola in Florence, conducted by Erich Kleiber, with Thyge Thygesen as Orfeo, Maria Callas as Euridice, and Boris Christoff as Creonte, fully 160 years after its composition. Today the complete opera remains a comparative rarity, while the Overture for an English Opera, Hob. Ia:3 has enjoyed a modest independent life in the orchestral repertoire, offering ensembles a compact example of the dramatic side of late Haydn beyond the familiar London symphonies. Its separate identity has been reinforced by modern publication, notably this 1953 critical edition by H. C. Robbins Landon. Instrumentation: 1.2.0.2: 2.2.0.0: Timp: Str (4.4.3.3.3 in set). Reprint edition.