Keiser: Ulysses - Musicalisches Schauspiel

His colleague Georg Philipp Telemann, who was only a few years older, described him as "the greatest mind 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. A special position in Keiser's oeuvre is occupied by the opera Ulysses from 1722: it is based on the work of another. 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 out of the necessity of adaptation and created a highly virtuosic combination of German text, French splendor and the Italian passion that was already common in the opera business at the time and which he mastered to perfection. The Göttingen Baroque Orchestra and an illustrious group of soloists present this ingenious and highly enjoyable mix of styles with passionate enthusiasm.