I was curious to hear a Haydn opera as this composer was never really known in that genre to the same extent as his younger colleague Mozart. His 1768 opera, Lo Speziale (The Apothecary) is here presented on a DVD of a 1982 performance which is certainly very stylish, well-sung and well-played. The librettist is the great Venetian comic playwright Carlo Goldoni.

I can't understand why the Haydn expert H.C. Robbins Landon was called upon to revise the libretto as that information is not given anywhere on the DVD. In fact, there is very little information given on the DVD, period.

The plot is almost impossible to follow even with a summary I found elsewhere. There are no subtitles here and no libretto that I'm aware of. And this opera badly needs both. And, just as annoying, there is very little tracking between one section and another so finding anything is difficult to impossible. It's possible to start at the beginning of each act but otherwise the fast-forward has to be used.

Volpino (Carmen González) is another example of a "trouser" role (a female singer in a male role.) and, in it's present form, I find it rather more annoying than amusing. Since some of the singing is not together with the orchestra, I would gather that this is a live unedited performance. As is typical with 18th century opera buffa, there are many rather absurd disguises particularly those in the Turkish style, which, at least, gives the costume designer a chance to show off.

As for the music, I find a good deal of it is too much the same. A rather beautiful duet between Antonella Manotti (Grilletta) and William Matteuzzi (Mengone) in the third act is an exception but little of this would make one forget the operas of Wolfgang Amadeus. But there is also the interesting "Turkish"-style music.

The humor, which includes a rather Harpo Marxian servant (a mute part of course!), is broad and rather thickly laid on but that is the style.

The DVD includes, by its own description, a Haydn String Quartet as a bonus, but it may actually include half of the six op. 64 quartets and, since these are mature works in Haydn's best style, they tend to put the opera in the shade musically. But it's impossible to tell what is included much like everything else on this DVD.

2 out of 10 for the DVD and 6 for the performance. Watch this only if you have an interest in Haydn operas and have a score or libretto handy or understand Italian.

A word about the other review: I fail to see that the reviewer has seriously disagreed with what I wrote and merely feels that I am "ungenerous", perhaps lacking in gratitude that this DVD exists at all. Maybe I should have praised the younger tenor more, though I did single him out in the duet. Several simple steps would have considerably improved the DVD such as subtitles, better navigation and better documentation and would have made a stronger case for the opera.

I don't think I belabored the Mozart comparison but I did find Haydn's use of the Turkish style more interesting than Mozart's (In the "Abduction" and "Rondo a la Turca".). This may be due partly to this opera's unfamiliarity.

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