Production still for "Esterhaz". L-R: Elly Varrenti as Magdalena, Robert Meldrum as Joseph Haydn. Photographer: Unknown
Esterhaz
By Ron Elisha
15 November 1990 – 08 December 1990 Merlyn Theatre
Playbox Theatre Company, Rantos Collegium Chamber Orchestra,
New Writing Theatre World Premiere
The year is 1772. Sheltered in the isolated marshlands of the Austro-Hungarian Empire is Esterhaz, a palace built to rival the splendour of Versailles, and the summer residence of the Crown Prince Nicholas Esterhazy.
All is brocade and light in this wonderland of rococo artifice, until the court musicians are told that the Prince has decided to stay on at Esterhaz, and that as a result they will not be able to rejoin their families in Eisenstadt in the months ahead. Suddenly the smell of insurrection is in the air.
In a stunning combination of music, image, biography and drama, Ron Elisha draws us into the gilded world of Esterhaz - a world of wealth, power and danger, where the bestowal of a princely snuff-box may mean the difference between fame and oblivion. It's all a game of Haydn chic.
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