| Il mondo della luna | |
|---|---|
| Opera buffa by Joseph Haydn | |
 Portrait of the composer by Thomas Hardy, in 1791 | |
| Translation | The World on the Moon |
| Librettist | Carlo Goldoni |
| Language | Italian |
| Premiere | 3 August 1777 |
Il mondo della luna (The World on the Moon), Hob. XXVIII:7, is an opera buffa by Joseph Haydn with a libretto written by Carlo Goldoni in 1750, first performed at Eszterháza, Hungary, on 3 August 1777. Goldoni's libretto had previously been set by six other composers,[1] first by the composer Baldassare Galuppi and performed in Venice in the carnival of 1750. It was then adapted for Haydn's version of the opera, which would be performed during the wedding celebrations of Count Nikolaus Esterházy, the younger son of Haydn's patron, Prince Nikolaus Esterházy, and the Countess Maria Anna Wissenwolf.[2] It is sometimes performed as a singspiel under its German title Die Welt auf dem Monde.[3]
- ^ Polzonetti, Pierpaolo. Italian Opera in the Age of the American Revolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011. p. 30. One of these settings is by Pedro António Avondano, whose Il mondo della luna was the first opera of a Portuguese composer to be performed in the Portuguese court (1765).
- ^ "Joseph Haydn", in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, online edition. Oxford University Press, 2007.
- ^ J.A.W., "Reviews of Music: Die Welt auf dem Monde (Il mondo della luna)". Music & Letters, Vol. 40, No. 4, October 1959. pp. 399–400.