His colleague Georg Philipp Telemann, who was only a few years older, described him as “the greatest spirit of his time”. Reinhard Keiser is a striking example of a musician who was held in the highest esteem in his time, but is hardly present today. He wrote numerous stage works for the Hamburg Opera at the Gänsemarkt.
The opera Ulysses, written in 1722, occupies a special place in Keiser’s oeuvre: it is based on the work of another composer. Jean-Féry Rebel had already presented an opera of the same name in Paris in 1703. Librettist Friedrich Maximilian von Lersner translated the literary model into German. Keiser made a virtue of the necessity of adaptation and created a virtuoso combination of German text, French splendour and Italian passion, which was already common in the opera business at that time and which he mastered perfectly.
The Göttingen Baroque Orchestra and an illustrious group of soloists present this ingenious and highly enjoyable mix of styles with passionate enthusiasm. © Coviello Classics