Joseph Haydn is not primarily remembered as a composer of opera, yet he wrote 17 of them, and 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.