Suspects – WalkThe HaydnWalk

Liste of Suspects

Tibor Dalasc

Tante Julia Rosina

Pepe Lasiffoi

Eugen Zapfner

Augustina Schachtelhalm

Bernardon

Giuseppe Quindici

Anna Keller

Reinhard Sonnenblum

Charles de Moreau

Johann Elßler

Ferenc Liszt

Luigia Polzelli

Tibor Dalasc

He was a hungarian nobleman and a familyman through and through.
In his sparetime he loved to form anagrams and palindromes.

Joseph “Jo“ Haydn´s symphony No. 47 written in G-Mayor, for instance, was called “the palindrome“.

Although Tibor was a cunning businessman, owning such a famous opera would have been very valuable.

innocent

suspected

Aunt Julia Rosina

Jo was calling his aunt Muhme.
She should have taken over the parent roll, should have taken care about his physical well-being and with love and care replacing his parental upbringing.This wasn`t going well. Auntie was quite sloppy and not really caring a lot.

„I had to painfully experience that filthiness ruled and although i was quite proud of myself, i couldn`t avoid having stains of dirt all over my clothings over time. That was really embarrassing. I was looking like a filthy hedgehog!“.

So maybe aunt Jül was in need of some extra pocketmoney, who knows?

innocent

suspected

Pepe Lasiffoi

What a strange family name, right? Pepe seems to be of Italian descent but no one exactly knows.

He was the impresario of 2 of the most famous theaters in Vienna: The “Kärntnertor-Theater“ and the “Burgtheater“.

Pepe was not really a big art lover, but he loved the smell of money!

Jo was once writing the music to a satirical opera in which they were making fun of Pepe.
As you can imagine he was not very fond of that and decided to discontinue the opera. Six years later the opera was performed again with a different name. A small update!

One day Lasiffoi vanished and was later arrested in Italy.

Hmmm… could he possibly be the thief of Haydn`s first opera?

innocent

suspected

Eugen Zapfner

His friends strangely called him “Zapferl“. He has been the cellar master of Eisenstadt during that time.

As Jo was also really into drinking wine, especially red wine, they were often times meeting and singing ballads in the bar “the angel“ which was a former monastery.

Zapferl really loved the Haydn oratory “the seasons“ especially the season fall where Haydn was praising the wine in the composition. “The barrels are full!“

Jo`s wineyard was initially residing in the gardens of Schloss Esterházy on a beautiful, sunny hillside location. As Jo was quite busy throughout the week, Zapferl helped him cultivating the wineyard.

Hmmm… what could have been Zapferl´s motivation for stealing the opera!

innocent

suspected

Augustina Schachtelhalm

What a pretty girl, maybe a bit mysterious and quite shy. She was the BFF of Jo´s childhood sweetheart Theresia Helena Keller, the younger sister of Haydn´s wife. And in one of life´s little ironies, Theresia had to enter a monastery and was lost forever.
What a pity…

Probably Augustina would have been the right one for Jo but she fell in love with a nobleman. Being rich was of utmost importance during that time. Therefore Augustina was able enjoying a decent standard of living.

Malicious tongues (rumor has it) even say that she wanted to sell Jo´s stolen opera to prevent her friend from entering the monastery.

innocent

suspected

Charles de Moreau

Since he was moving to Austria in 1803 he has been the house and home architect of the lineage of the Esterházy. Charles was designing really cool buidlings like the “Haydnkirche“ the Hunting lodge “Gloriette“ and the “Leopoldinentempel“. He was also redesigning the Schloss Esterházy and was building the first “Dianabad“ an indoor swimming pool in Vienna.

Despite the fact that he was a really busy man he had some sympathy for art and was a painter in his own right.

Probably he was having an unknown fondness for music and was therefore stealing Papa Haydn´s opera to stage it in a big opera house in vienna.
Anything´s possible…

innocent

suspected

Anna Keller

In 1760 Jo was marrying Maria Anna Theresia Keller. What a failed marriage! His wife was domineering and quarrelsome and was by no means interested in Jo´s music. Malicious tongues say that she was not very clever at all. So, to cut a long story short, she was not the right choice!

Big bad lady

Just one bad lady
is living under the sun
the pity is that everybody believes
his own wife being the one.

So probably Mrs. Haydn wanted to end Jo´s career by stealing his opera.

innocent

suspected

Ferenc Liszt

The little Franz (hungarian Ferenc ) was already well known for his outstanding talent, when he was just a kid.

Adam Liszt, the father of this piano virtuoso and composer, was very proud of having played music in Haydn’s orchestra. As accounting officer, of prince Esterházy’s sheep-breeding, he and his family lived in Raiding, where his famous son was born.

Little Franz grew to be one of the most famous piano virtuosos of his time and with an Œuvre of more than 1300 pieces and adaptations he has also been one of the most productive composers of the 19th century.

Hmmmm, surly Jo’s opera would have been quite useful for him …

innocent

suspected

Johann Elßler

Johann was a nice guy. He had been Jo’s autograph, manager, copyist and also his servant.

As he was rather close to Jo and knew him very well, he published quite alot about him and his life. He became an important source for Haydn researchers.

Like his father, Johann the Elder, he hand-copied a lot of Jo’s works. In 1794/95 he also accompanied him to
London.

His daughter, Fanny Elszler (image, right) became one of the most famouos dancers of the 19th century.

Could he have lost Jo’s opera by accident?

innocent

suspected

Bernardon

Johann Joseph Felix Kurz, a clever guy. was one of the most amazing theatrical actors in Vienna back in those days. He invented the fictional character Bernardon. His “Bernardoniade“ was a kind of a magical burlesque in other words an improvised comedy.

Btw. Bernardon was collaborating closely twice with Jo and he was also the customer for the score of an opera by the name of…..hmmm…?

Bernardon was really interested in any kind of music but especially interested in Haydn`s.

So maybe… could he be the wanted thief?

innocent

suspected

Giuseppe Quindici

When he was a kid his nickmane has been “Sepperl“ – exactly the same nickname Haydn has been given when he was small. Weird similarities?
Giuseppe was a tough businessman, an impresario of a theater in Hungary, always looking out for new amazing plays to stage.

A lot of people were thinking that Jo`s symphony No15 was playing a decisive role for his employment at the Esterházy Court. Others have thought that it was one of the first symphonies Haydn was composing in Eisenstadt in 1761.

If you take a closer look you will recognise that Giuseppe is hiding some sheets of music under his vest. Could it be that…

innocent

suspected

Luigia Polzelli

From 1779 Jo’s mistress was working as a mezzosopranin, in the orchestra of Prince Esterházy in Eisenstadt.

Sadly her more than moderate talent took quite an influence on Jo’s work. All though she was acting in only two of Jo’s operas (as Silvia in „L’isola disabitata“ and as Lisetta in „La vera costanza“), he adapted quite some pieces for her tender voice.

Jo spent a lot of money on her as she was always hard up. Rumour has it, that one of her two sons was his child…

One can assume, that she probably wouldn’t have shied away from making a little bargain by selling Jo’s opera.

innocent

suspected

Rainhardt Sonnenblum

Rainhardt was a jewish businessman and a passionate collector of autographs which are handwritten transcripts of famous persons or composers. His friends were calling him Girasole that means sunflower in Italian. Girasole was always nicely dressed often times wearing his brown blazer with sunflower applications on the lapels.

Fyi: Jo´s string quartetts Opus 20 were published by J.J. Hummels. The title page was showing the icon of a sun, hence the name “Sun“ quartetts.

Our friend was an enterprising indiviual, so maybe he was selling the opera for a huge amount of money?

innocent

suspected