Haydn`s last great work for the stage, the opera L'Anima del filosofo ossia Orfeo ed Euridice, was written in London in 1791 for the rebuilt Haymarket Theatre. The novel thing about it was its use of the chorus both as a major vehicle of the plot and as an observer in the manner of Attic tragedy. The premiere scheduled to take place on 31 May 1791 had to be called off when King George lll failed to grant the theatre a license to open. The first staged performance did not take place until 1951 (1) in Florence. This vocal score is based on the urtext from the Complete Edition of Haydn's Works.<br>