L'anima del filosofo ossia Orfeo ed Euridice. Dramma per musica
Editor: Helmut Wirth; Reihe XXV, Band 13;
1974, G. Henle Verlag München

The opinion is still held that this wonderful opera is unfinished. This is an opinion that is neither well-founded nor does justice to the work. This misjudgement is based on the one hand on a letter from Haydn in which he writes of five acts (which were composed; he wrote two short acts at the end, which he also composed), and on the other hand probably more on the tragic ending of this opera, which was highly unusual at the time and which would not have been expected of Joseph Haydn. In the final dramatic action, the hero drinks from a poisoned cup, and as a musical conclusion, there is a chorus of bacchantes who are doomed to sink in a storm at sea. Those who doubt this are encouraged to consider the idea that Haydn was indeed looking for such endings. One should simply consider the development of opera, which was becoming increasingly serious. Those who want to stimulate the imagination should try to add something musical after this magical ending composed by Haydn and that’s before we mention the storyline.
However, certain omissions can be found in the surviving score and copies. There is an incorrect indication for the English horns, a tenor clef instead of a bass clef, and gaps in the notes here and there. This is certainly due to the inglorious end of this commissioned composition. Haydn had evidently no longer carried out the writing of the score in a consistent manner. The fact that a libretto was not printed is self-explanatory.
Initial ambiguities about the order of the titles were soon resolved in the Henle edition. A logical sequence could now be drawn up.

The libretto was written by Carlo Francesco Badini, based on the mythological story of Orpheus and Euridice from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Badini had previously appeared as a lyricist in connection with Haydn as the writer of Orlando paladino, which also served as the basis for Haydn’s opera of the same name, albeit revised by Nunziato Porta. The libretto has not survived, which is why it cannot be used for verification. This circumstance also made the urtext edition of the Henle score used for this project more difficult.