Haydn’s deliciously tongue-in-cheek intermezzo in two short acts, La canterina, is one of his earliest operas and sets a witty Italian libretto possibly by the tenor Carl Friberth, who sang Don Pelagio in the first performance.  It was the first opera Haydn produced in his new post as Kappellmeister to Prince Nikolaus Esterházy ‘the Magnificent’.  The premiere was a private one in the palace in summer 1766 and commemorated the name-day of the Prince’s eldest son Anton; the first public performance took place on 16 February 1767 in the Bishop’s Palace in Pressburg (Bratislava), for which occasion velvet-bound copies of the libretto were produced for the assembled royalty.  Haydn created a vivacious and immensely clever score ranging from brief arias to extended quartets.  Most striking are the music of Pelagio’s supposedly serious aria for the singing lesson, and the histrionics of Gasparina’s demonstration of her acting prowess in Act 2.  Energetic and clever, they reveal Haydn’s growing skills in comedy which was to be further developed in his mature operas.  The overture is missing and tonight’s performance will use his Overture in D (Hob Ia:4).

The slight story is set in the rooms of Maestro Pelagio’s studios where he is housing the temperamental, manipulative and grasping young singer Gasparina (on whom he has designs), as well as her chaperone-cum-agent-cum-confidante Apollonia.  Gasparina unwisely receives visits from Don Ettore, a handsome boy prone to bringing her lavish jewellery and other gifts stolen from his mother.  Unfortunately Pelagio’s arrival to give Gasparina a singing lesson coincides with Ettore and quick thinking is need to pass the boy off as a linen draper bringing material for a new concert dress.  Pelagio presents his pupil with a new tragic aria, full of fashionable ‘Sturm und Drang’ and attempts to teach it to her, but eventually his lascivious desires get the better of him - perhaps just as well since Gasparina can barely manage a note of it.  After his departure, Ettore returns but is exposed by Pelagio who has crept back into the room.  Remembering that his lodgers owe both rent and payment for lessons, the furious Pelagio vows to evict them.  He finds the task quite difficult, however, and Gasparina makes the most of his wavering sympathy by playing the tragic outcast in a passionate C minor aria ‘Bereaved and abandoned’.  He relents and even offers to give her money and better lodgings.  Gasparina is greedy for even more and so causes his extreme alarm by fainting.  In a panic, Pelagio calls for Apollonia and Ettore.  The boy showers further diamonds on his beloved, Pelagio empties his purse and at the end the revived prima donna has got both the men just where she wants them. 

The Italian text of Don Pelagio’s Accompanied Recitative and Aria presented to Gasparina for her lesson translates: Whatever shall I do?  Husband?  Shall I see your bloodied face?  Breathing your last?  Your eyes closing one final time?  Those sweet eyes?  To face our enemy!  Oh God!  Am I not above all else your wife?  What shall I do? Am I to wed the vile tyrant?  Shall I see my husband slain?  What to do, o miserable heart?”