About the work
L'anima del filosofo, ossia Orfeo ed Euridice is an opera seria in four acts to a libretto by Carlo Francesco Badini on the Orpheus myth. Haydn composed it in 1791 for London's King's Theatre, but a dispute between King George III and the Prince of Wales blocked the planned production; Haydn kept his fee and set the work aside.
Plot
Orpheus rescues Euridice from a forced marriage, but she dies of a snakebite shortly after their wedding. Advised by the Sibyl, he descends to the underworld and is allowed to bring her back, only to lose her for good when he breaks the rule against looking at her; Orpheus himself is finally killed by vengeful Bacchantes.
Cultural significance
Unperformed in Haydn's lifetime, the opera received its stage premiere only on 9 June 1951 at the Teatro della Pergola in Florence, with Maria Callas as Euridice under conductor Erich Kleiber – 160 years after it was written.