Haydn: Acide e Galatea - Festa Teatrale (opera fragment, Hob.XXVIII:1)

To commemorate the bicentenary of the death of Joseph Haydn, BIS Records and the Haydn Sinfonietta Wien have entered into a collaboration which will result in several releases during 2009. The repertoire will mainly consist of rare works from Haydn’s œuvre, including music written for the stage, concert arias and orchestral works. Also included will be re-releases of the highly acclaimed recordings by Haydn Sinfonietta Wien and its conductor Manfred Huss of Haydn’s overtures, divertimenti, etc BIS is proud to release a rarely (if ever) recorded fragment of Haydn’s opera Acide which was composed for the celebrations of the wedding of Count Anton Esterházy and Countess Maria Theresia Erdödy, and performed at the Esterházy residence at Eisenstadt on 11th January 1763. The Italian libretto, by G. A. Migliavacca, retells the well-known episode from Ovid’s Metamorphoses in which the nymph Galatea witnesses the death of her lover Acis (Acide) at the hands of the cyclops Polyphemus. Four arias and most of the recitatives from the original 1763 version of Acide have been lost, but complementing the remaining numbers are two arias and a recitative composed by Haydn for a planned second production in 1773.