Hafner – Haydn – Casti/Paisiello: Zum "Abschied" von der Bühne

Abstract

Using the review of the premiere of Giambattista Casti’s and Giovanni Paisiello’s Il re Teodoro in Venezia (1784) in the Wiener Kronik historisch-politisch-philosophisch-litterärischen Inhalts, which relates the opera to Philipp Hafner’s comedy Der Furchtsame (1764) and Joseph Haydn’s „Farewell Symphony“ Hob. I:45 (1772), as point of departure, this paper compares the three aforementioned pieces with especial regard to the unusual form of their endings. In doing so the question arises if Haydn in composing his symphony might have been guided by Hafner’s play, too, albeit so far a definite answer seems impossible. In view of the potentially theatrical context the performative dimension of Haydn’s symphony appears, however, in a new light.