Haydn: Acide, festa teatrale. Fragment of an opera composed for the celebrations of the wedding of Count Anton Esterházy and Countess Maria Theresia Erdödy, and performed at the Esterházy residence at Eisenstadt on 11th January 1763. The Italian libretto, by G. A. Migliavacca, retells the well-known episode from Ovid’s Metamorphoses in which the nymph Galatea witnesses the death of her lover Acis (Acide) at the hands of the cyclops Polyphemus, and his subsequent transformation into a river-god: a tale of undying love fit for the circumstances of the performance. Four arias and most of the recitatives from the original 1763 version of Acide have been lost, but complementing the remaining numbers are two arias and a recitative composed by Haydn for a planned second production in 1773, a project which in the end came to nothing.
Soloists: Acide: Bernhard Richter, tenor; Galatea: Raffaella Milanesi, soprano; Glauce: Jennifer O'Loughlin, soprano; Polifemo & Nettuno: Iván Paley, baritone; Tetide: Adrineh Simonian, mezzo-soprano.
