Category: Perfomance Art

Franz Josef Haydn (1732-1809), “Papa” Haydn, is revered as the Father of the Symphony (he wrote at least 104 of them) and of the String Quartet (at least 68, as well as over 40 piano trios). However, despite having spent much time laboring over his output of operas (he completed 17 of them), we rarely hear them performed today. So it was with great excitement that I prepared to hear my first live performance of a genuine Haydn opera. I was delighted: by the charming and dramatic music, by the outstanding singing and playing of the pit orchestra and by the spectacular staging and lighting which accompanied the music.

The opera in question, Orlando Paladino, composed in 1782, has been described as a “dramma eroicomico” (a drama mixing heroïc and comic elements). But in the superb production presented Friday evening at the Stevens Center by the students and faculty of the UNCSA School of Music and the A.J. Fletcher Opera Institute, the dominant element was definitely Comedy! Even the “heroic” elements were presented with tongue-in-cheek satire and more in the style of a parody than of an epic.