About the work
La fedeltà premiata is a dramma pastorale giocoso in three acts; Haydn adapted the libretto with an anonymous co-author from Giambattista Lorenzi's L'infedeltà fedele. The opera opened the rebuilt opera house at Eszterháza on 25 February 1781, after fire had destroyed the previous theatre in 1779.
Plot
A cruel custom demands that a loving couple be sacrificed each year to Diana's monster, unless an unfaithful lover volunteers instead. Mistaken identities and jealousy among the shepherds and nymphs delay the rescue until fidelity is finally rewarded.
Cultural significance
Composed to reopen the court theatre, the work ranks among the musically most accomplished of Haydn's Eszterháza operas and was given again in a revised version in 1782.