Sunday Afternoon at the Opera - M. Haydn: Endimione

Sunday Afternoon at the Opera host Keith Brown writes:

Johann Michael Haydn (1737-1806) was the younger brother of the famous Franz Joseph Haydn. Like "Papa" Haydn, Michael Haydn wrote symphonies (forty or more), much church music,etc. He also wrote a small amount of lyric theater music. From 1763 onwards he resided in Salzburg, where he was well acquainted with young Wolfgang and the rest of the Mozart family. It was for the Benedictine academy in Salzburg that he composed a German language Singspiel, Die Wahrheit der Natur (1769). The world premiere recording of "The Truth of Nature" went over the air on this program on Sunday, May 12, 2019.

He wrote only one other similar serenata or mini-opera: Endimione, this one performed at the behest of Salzburg's prince-archbishop for festivities following the consecration of Salzburg Cathedral in 1776. Endimione has an Italian language libretto by Pietro Metastasio, the most important librettist of the Age of Enlightenment. It was set to music by many of Michael Haydn's contemporaries. Mozart owned a copy of the score of the Haydn setting. The music compares very favorably with Mozart's contemporaneous work Il Re Pastore (K. 208). Endimione, similarly, is a pastoral-type theatrical entertainment, not a heavyweight Italian opera seria.

The same performing forces that gave you Die Wahrheit der Natur have concentrated their talents yet again upon Endimione. Wolfgang Brunner leads the period instrumentalists of the Salzburger Hofmusik, with four vocal soloists. A 2021 CD release from the German CPO record label. "This charming 'serenata' came as a complete surprise and has raised my opinion of and interest in Haydn's little brother," so writes reviewer James H. North (Fanfare, March/April 2022 issue).