Opera Scotland

Infedeltà delusa L'infedeltà delusa; Deceit Outwitted

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Music

Franz Joseph Haydn (born Rohrau, 31 March 1732; died Vienna, 31 May 1809)

Text

Marco Coltellini, rev. Carl Friberth.

 

Premieres

First performance: Eszterháza (Theatre), 26 July 1773.

First performance in UK: London (Royal Festival Hall), 14 October 1960 (concert).

First performance in UK (London (St Pancras Town Hall), 18 March 1964 (staged).

First performance in Scotland: Glasgow (New Athenaeum Theatre), 25 January 2025.

 

Background

L'infedeltà delusa is generally considered to be one of the most successful of Haydn's comic operas - described as a 'Burletta per musica in due atti' - a musical burlesque in two acts.  It was composed for the widow of Haydn's first patron.  A second performance was given the following month in honour of a visit by the Empress Maria Theresa, who, apparently, compared Eszterhãzy's operas favourably compared to her standard fare in Vienna.

It was one of the first of the composer's operas to be presented to a British audience, with the 1964 production at the Camden Festival following a successful concert performance on the South Bank in 1960.  Within a few years it was also presented at the Wexford Festival.  It has also been recorded twice, with happy results.

It is an ideal work to be presented by students.  They need to be fully practised in Mozartian techniques and idiom, but can enjoy getting their teeth into something less routine, with an attractively simple plot.  No Haydn opera has yet been presented by Scottish Opera, and very few at the Edinburgh Festival.

 

Characters

Vespina, sister of Nanni and in love with Nencio (soprano)

Sandrina, a simple girl, in love with Nanni (soprano)

Nencio, a wealthy farmer (tenor)

Filippo, an elderly peasant, Sandrina's father (tenor)

Nanni, a peasant, in love with Sandrina (baritone)

 

Plot summary

The plot outlines the activities of Vespina in her attempts to foil the plans of Filippo to marry his daughter off to the eligible Nencio, who is himself Vespina's target. Her brother Nanni himself wants to marry Sandrina, but her father prefers the wealthier Nencio as a candidate.

The second act involves Vespina taking on a series of disguises to create the confusion by which she engineers the ideal solution.