Joseph Haydn is not primarily remembered as a composer of opera, yet the genre occupied a great deal of his time. During the 1770s and 1780s, Haydn ran an opera troupe on behalf of his employer, Prince Nikolaus Esterházy, which put on up to 150 performances per year. A number of the operas were Haydn's own work. Haydn's operas are only occasionally performed today.
The list is arranged chronologically and divided by career stage.
| Date | Title | Hob. | Genre | Subdivisions | Libretto | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1763 revised 1773/1774 | Acide e Galatea | 28/1 | 1 act | ||||
| 1766 | La canterina (The Songstress) | 28/2 | 2 acts | ||||
| 1768 | Lo speziale (The Apothecary) | 28/3 | 3 acts | Carlo Goldoni, revised by Carl Friberth? | |||
| 1770 | Le pescatrici (The Fishwives) | 28/4 | dramma giocoso | 3 acts | Carlo Goldoni, revised by Carl Friberth? | ||
| 1773 | L'infedeltà delusa (Deceit Outwitted) | 28/5 | burletta per musica | 2 acts | Marco Coltellini, revised by Carl Friberth? | ||
| 1773 | Der Hexenschabbas (The Witches' Shabbas) | 29a/2 | Singspiel for marionettes | Music lost | |||
| 1775 | L'incontro improvviso (The Unexpected Encounter) | 28/6 | dramma giocoso | 3 acts | Carl Friberth, after L H Dancourt's La rencontre imprévue | ||
| 1775 | Die Feuersbrunst (The Conflagration) | 29b/A | Singspiel | 2 acts | Uncertain. Music lost | ||
| 1776 | Didone Abbandonata (Dido) | 29a/3 | Singspiel for marionettes | Philipp Georg Bader | Music lost | ||
| 1776 | Philemon und Baucis | 29b/2 | Singspiel | 1 act | |||
| 1777 | Il mondo della luna (The World on the Moon) | 28/7 | dramma giocoso | 3 acts | Carlo Goldoni | ||
| 1777 | Genovevens vierter Theil (Genovevens part four) | 29a/5 | Singspiel for marionettes | Joseph Karl von Pauersbach | Music lost | ||
| 1778/1779 | Le Glorieux oder Der Grosssprecher (Le Glorieux or The Great Speaker) | 29b/B | Singspiel | Uncertain. Music lost | |||
| 1779 revised 1785 | La vera costanza (True Constancy) | 28/8 | dramma giocoso | 3 acts | Francesco Puttini | ||
| 1779 | L'isola disabitata (The Deserted Island) | 28/9 | 2 parts | ||||
| 1779 | Die bestrafte Rachbegierde (The punished desire for revenge) | 29b/3 | Singspiel | 3 acts | Philipp Georg Bader | Music lost | |
| 1779 | Das abgebrannte Haus (The Burned House) | 29a/4 | Singspiel for marionettes | Music lost | |||
| 1781 | La fedeltà premiata (Fidelity Rewarded) | 28/10 | dramma giocoso | 3 acts | after Giambattista's Lorenzi's L'infedeltà fedele | ||
| 1782 | Orlando paladino (The Paladin Orlando) | 28/11 | 3 acts | Nunziato Porta, based on Carlo Francesco Badini's Le pazzie d'Orlando, after Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando furioso | |||
| 1784 | Armida | 28/12 | dramma eroico | 3 acts | after Torquato Tasso's Gerusalemme liberata | ||
| 1786/1788 | Grün und Rosenfarb (Green and rose color) | 29b/E | Singspiel | 1 act | Uncertain. Music lost |
During the 1970s, after the release of his complete Haydn symphony cycle, Hungarian-American conductor Antal Doráti recorded eight of Haydn's operas for Philips Records, with the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne. The selected works were Armida, La fedeltà premiata, L'incontro improvviso, L'infedeltà delusa, L'isola disabitata, Il mondo della luna, Orlando paladino and La vera costanza. These were initially released on LP format, then subsequently on CD in 1993. Many of Doráti's Haydn operas are still reference recordings, and have had successful reviews from Gramophone and The Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music.