Haydn would have referred to it, if asked, as a routine year. And in fact, since the beginning of 1776, years do begin to take on a bit of routine. No great feasts for visitors (although no shortage of visitors), no guest performances at out-of-town venues; just keeping the Prince entertained. Well, that, and getting on with life.
One of the getting on with events was Haydn selling the house in Eisenstadt. They just aren’t there long enough to justify it now, with the season at Eszterháza lasting from late January until the Prince’s birthday in late December (!!). Also, he needed relief from the ongoing debt that goes with home ownership and upkeep. Two fires over the years, both of them authoring fairly complete destruction, certainly contributed to the debt situation. So, on the block it went, and quickly sold to another employee of the Prince for 2,000 gulden. He paid off his debt with the first thousand, then took the remaining thousand and invested it in the Prince’s bank. This was the first capital he ever owned, and as we will see, at the Prince’s death when he reckoned his net worth, this was still the only capital which he owned! It did, however, pay a steady 5% annual interest, so he had some small income generated from it, right up till the time of his death.
The opera for the year was La Vera Costanza, and it has an interesting and clouded history attached. It was commissioned by the Imperial Court which wanted a Haydn opera for the Court Theater after hearing about Il mondo della Luna. Haydn wrote it specifically for the ranges of the singers employed there. When it got to Vienna, the managers distributed the parts to entirely different singers and told Haydn he had no right to allocate parts. Haydn told Griesinger and Dies he appealed to Joseph II and was told that even he couldn’t make any headway against the cabal arranged against Haydn’s opera. Haydn took the entire thing back and told them they couldn’t have it. The Prince staged it at Eszterháza the following year. There is a lot more behind all this story than meets the eye, with contradictory evidence popping up from many sources. One of the basic elements is that Joseph II didn’t like Haydn’s music, on the same grounds as Berlin critics circle had. He (and they) were ultra-conservative musically, and Haydn was anything but. By the time Haydn related these stories to Griesinger and Dies, he may have gotten confused on the actual course of events. Indications in the court theater records would lead one to believe it was Joseph himself who blocked the production, rather than championing it. In any case, the entire opera was destroyed in the 1779 fire, and the product we have today was a rewrite which Haydn completed in 1785. There can be no way to tell if it simply duplicates the original, or by how much it varies. Certainly Haydn was a different composer by 1785.
One thing we have for 1778 which we don’t have for any other year, although they must have once existed, is the list/schedule for all dramatic/comedic/operatic presentations for the entire year! Here, I will pick out a little stretch of a month or so at random and you can see what sort of schedule Haydn had to keep. Bearing in mind, of course, that he provided incidental music for all of the plays and other entertainments, not to mention the operas and ‘academies’, which were concerts by any other name.
LIST of operas, academies, puppet shows and plays which were performed from the 23rd of January till the 22nd of December 1778 at the princely theatre in Eszterháza: (NAB. Fasc. 2461 1-7.1.)
Excerpt (March 10 to April 10) with annotations (by me):
March
There was apparently an hiatus for two weeks beginning the month;
Day
10. The Pauli company began with Die falschen Vertraulichkeiten (The False Confidences) – 3-act comedy in prose by the French playwright Pierre de Marivaux
11. Arnaud, a drama in 2 acts, and Der Graf Althaus (The Count Althaus), a comedy in 3 acts with Mr. Ulrich, and Bachmeyer in the cast.
12. II Barone di Rocca antica (The Lord of the Old Castle). Opera - Karl Ditters
13. Trau, schau, wem! (Take care whom you trust). Played by the Schwarzwald family.
14. William Buttler, a play in 5 acts.
16. Die verstellte Kranke (The Imaginary Invalid). 3 act comedy-ballet by Molière
17. Emilia Galotti, a play in five acts by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
18. Der Edelknabe und Jeny, oder die Uneigennützigkeit (The Page and Jenny or Unselfishness). A drama.
21. On the return of H. Highness: (NB: who were the audience for the preceding??) Henriette, oder Sie ist schon verheirathet (Henrietta or She is already married). Drama by Gustav Großman.
22. Il Barone di Rocca antica (The Lord of the Old Castle). (Ditters)
23. Der Glaubiger (The Creditor), a touching comedy in 3 acts.
24. Die Haushaltung nach der Mode (Household a la mode), farce in 5 acts.
25. Der Postzug (The Mail-coach) in 2 acts and Wilhelmine.
27. and 28. (Nothing, on account of the wind).
29. La buona figliuola (The Good Daughter). opera buffa in 3 acts by Niccolò Piccinni With M. Lamberti in the cast.
30. Die Schule der Freigeister und Die doppelte Hinderniss (The School of Freethinkers and The Double Impediment). 2 short comedies (?)
31. Der Graf von Walltron, oder die Subordination. (Count von Walltron or Subordination) a play in 5 acts Heinrich Ferdinand Möller. Only published the previous year.
April
1. Die drei Zwillingsbrüder (The Three Twin Brothers). A Singspiel (?)
2. Minna von Barnhelm oder das Soldatenglück (Minna von Barnhelm or The Soldiers' Happiness (Luck ?)) a Lustspiel (comedy) by Lessing
3. Der Jurist und der Bauer (The Lawyer and the Peasant) a comedy by Johann Rautenstrauch and Der Nachtwächter (The Night Watchman)
4. Die Feuersbrunst (The Burning House). We don’t know if this was the original 1773 Schauspiel by Gustav Großman (which the Wahr Troupe had performed in 1774) or if it was Haydn’s marionette Singspiel.
5. Il Finto Pazzo (Feigned Madness). Opera by Karl Ditters.
6. Das Duell und Die Windmill. (The Duel and The Windmill). 2 short dramas (?)
7. Der zoo gefallige Ehemann (The Too Obliging Husband) a comedy (?)
8. Der Kühehirte und Der dankbare Sohn (The Cowherd and The Grateful Son).
9. Arcifanfano, Re d’Matti (Arcifanfano, King of Fools) Opera (Karl Ditters) With Mr. Pezzani in the cast.
10. Miss Fanny comedy (?) in 5 acts.
You have to admit, this is a prodigious schedule for even a modest-size city to support. When one considers the year at this pace, is it any wonder Haydn’s output was temporarily slowed? Slowed, but not stopped. Next time we will see what he produced on his own this year. There are symphonies, a very nice keyboard sonata and an opera, at least. For now we will leave Haydn trying to figure out how to handle all that drama!
Thanks for reading!