Work: L'isola disabitata, Hob XXVIII:9

When one thinks of Haydn, opera really isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. It’s the symphonies, the string quartets, even his oratorios you think of first, not his operas. And yet he wrote 15 of them. L’isola disabitata is the eleventh of the bunch, written for the Eszterházy court in 1779, and it was this opera The Norwegian Opera and Ballet (DNO) chose as their 2012/2013 season opener.

Réduit au piano et privé de sa fameuse ouverture par Philippe Cassard, l'opéra de Haydn perd un peu de son âme mais bénéficie heureusement d'un quatuor vocal inspiré.