Le pescatrici

Le pescatrici
Opera by Joseph Haydn
Portrait of the composer by Thomas Hardy, in 1791
Description	dramma giocoso
Translation	The Fisherwomen
Librettist	Carlo Goldoni
Language	Italian
Premiere	16 September 1770 (1770-09-16) Eszterháza

Le pescatrici (The Fisherwomen) Hob. 28/4, is an opera (dramma giocoso) in three acts by Joseph Haydn set to a libretto by Carlo Goldoni. Originally composed as part of the wedding celebrations of Maria Theresa Countess Lamberg, the opera was first performed on 16 September 1770 in the court theatre at Eszterháza.

Le pescatrici was the second of the three Goldoni libretti that Haydn set to music — the other two were Lo speziale (1768) and Il mondo della luna (1777). However, Haydn was not the first to use Goldoni's libretto. It had previously been used for operas by Ferdinando Bertoni (Venice, 1751) and Niccolò Piccinni (Rome 1766) and was later used by Florian Leopold Gassmann (Vienna, 1771). Haydn composed Le pescatrici as part of the lavish celebrations for the marriage of Prince Nikolaus Esterházy's niece, Maria Theresa Countess Lamberg to Alois Count Poggi at Eszterháza where the opera was first performed on 16 September 1770. The roles of Lesbina and Frisellino were first sung by Maria Magdalena Spangler and her husband, Carl Friberth, two prominent court singers at Eszterháza. Carl Friberth may also have had a hand in adapting Goldoni's libretto for Haydn.

A third of the original score was then destroyed in a fire at Esterháza in 1779. It was later reconstructed in 1965 by the Haydn scholar by H.C. Robbins Landon and the composer Karl Heinz Füssl. Since then the opera has had occasional revivals, most notably in Amsterdam on 15 June 1965; in Paris on 29 June 1967 when it received its first radio broadcast; in Metz on 1 February 1985; and at Garsington Opera in June 1997.