Eisenstadt moved on in "calm peace and quiet," but now and again
it was stirred into special activity, when Haydn had to put forth his
efforts in various new directions. Such an occasion came very early in
his service of Prince Nicolaus, when that pompous person made triumphant
entry into Eisenstadt. The festivities were on a regal scale and
continued for a whole month. A company of foreign players had been
engaged to perform on a stage erected in the large conservatory, and
Haydn was required to provide them with operettas. He wrote several
works of the kind, one of which, "La Marchesa Nepola," survives in the
autograph score. Later on, for the marriage of Count Anton, the eldest
son of Prince Nicolaus, in 1763, he provided a setting of the story
which Handel had already used for his "Acis and Galatea." This work,
which was performed by the Eisenstadt Capelle, with the orchestra
clad in a new uniform of crimson and gold, bore the name of "Acide e
Galatea." Portions of the score still exist--a section of the overture,
four arias, and a finale quartet. The overture is described as being
"in his own style, fresh and cheerful, foreshadowing his symphonies.
The songs are in the Italian manner, very inferior in originality
and expression to Handel's music; the quartet is crude in form and
uninteresting in substance." [See Miss Townsend's Haydn, p. 44.]

It would seem rather ungracious, as it would certainly be redundant to
discuss these "occasional" works in detail. For one thing, the material
necessary to enable us to form a correct estimate of Haydn's powers as a
dramatic composer is wanting. The original autograph of "Armida," first
performed in 1783, is, indeed, preserved. "Orfeo ed Euridice," written
for the King's Theatre in the Haymarket in 1791, but never staged, was
printed at Leipzig in 1806, and a fair idea of the general style of
the work may be obtained from the beautiful air, "Il pensier sta negli
oggetti," included in a collection entitled "Gemme d'Antichita." But
beyond these and the fragments previously mentioned, there is little
left to represent Haydn as a composer of opera, the scores of most of
the works written expressly for Prince Esterhazy having been destroyed
when the prince's private theatre was burned down in 1779. What Haydn
would have done for opera if he had devoted his serious attention to
it at any of the larger theatres it is, of course, impossible to say.
Judging from what has survived of h