Up until 1776 there was no regular operatic tradition at the Eszterházy court, where Haydn was composer and Kapellmeister. He had composed several well-received operas, including L'Infedelta delusa and Lo Speziale, but it was not until the completion of the new Eszterházy theater in 1776 that he hit his stride in the operatic genre. For the next thirty years Haydn would oversee productions at the opera house, and his own compositions formed a central part of the new repertoire.

Il Mondo della Luna was the first of Haydn's works to be staged after an operatic season was established at the court, and it was the last of three libretti by Carlo Goldoni that Haydn would set to music (the others were Lo Speziale and Le Pescatrici). Haydn was apparently familiar with an earlier setting of the same libretto by the Venetian composer Gennaro Astarita, since he duplicated many of that composer's alterations to the libretto in his own version. The work underwent numerous changes during the compositional process in order to accommodate the singers chosen for the premiere. Notable among these was the alto-castrato Pietro Gherardi, whose inclusion in a comic opera rather than an opera seria was unusual.

Il Mondo della Luna was performed in celebration of the wedding of Count Nikolaus Eszterházy (son of Haydn's employer, Prince Eszterházy) and the Countess Maria Anna Weissenwolf on August 3, 1777, but very rarely (if at all) thereafter. Its main use to Haydn seems to have been as a source for musical recycling. The overture, slightly revised, became the first movement of his Symphony No. 63, and Ernesto's aria, "Qualche volta non fa male," became the Benedictus of the Mariazell Mass.

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