3 - Capellmeister at Esterháza

Summary

That Haydn was able to turn his attention once more to the composition of string quartets was not a little due to the new role that had evolved for him at Esterháza. It has been mentioned that from 1776 there was an annual operatic season, one which grew longer by the year; at the same time, Prince Nicolaus's demand for symphonies and baryton trios was dwindling. For over ten years Haydn's principal task was to be the direction of Italian opera, which involved not just conducting all rehearsals and performances, but also coaching the singers and seeing that all the performance material was in order and appropriate to existing conditions. Where this was not the case, transpositions or rescorings would be required; Haydn would often also delete or add material. Thus, apart from making numerous cuts to quicken the pace of the action (involving an exercise of dramatic judgment that Haydn seemed better able to apply to instrumental works such as Op. 33 than to his own operas), Haydn also composed many insertion arias, either by way of a substitute for an existing number or simply to allow greater opportunities for his own company. Haydn's own operatic production was concentrated in the 1770s; only three works were to be composed for the Esterháza opera house in the following decade, the last of them, Armida, in 1783.