Reinhard Keiser was born on January 9, 1674, and died on September 12, 1739. He was a German opera composer who lived and worked in Hamburg. He composed more than 100 operas. In 1745, Johann Adolf Scheibe wrote that Keiser was as skilled as Johann Kuhnau, George Frideric Handel, and Georg Philipp Telemann. However, most of Keiser's work was mostly forgotten for many years after his death.

Biography

Keiser was born in Teuchern, which is now part of Saxony-Anhalt. His father was an organist and teacher named Gottfried Keiser. He studied music with other organists in his town and later at the Thomasschule in Leipzig, where his teachers included Johann Schelle and Johann Kuhnau, who were direct predecessors of Johann Sebastian Bach.

In 1694, he became the court composer for the duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. He likely arrived at the court as early as 1692 to study its famous operas, which had been performed since 1691 after the city built an opera house with 1,200 seats. Keiser performed his first opera, Procris und Cephalus, there. The same year, his opera Basilius was performed in Hamburg and received great success, as noted by musicologist Johann Mattheson.

This was a productive time for Keiser, during which he composed operas, arias, duets, cantatas, serenades, church music, and large oratorios, all for the city’s use.

Around 1697, he settled permanently in Hamburg and became the chief composer at the famous Oper am Gänsemarkt (now known as the Hamburg State Opera) from 1697 to 1717. He became the director in 1702 but was not always present due to political issues. From 1703 to 1709, he changed the opera house from a public institution to a commercial venture, offering two to three performances each week, unlike opera houses meant for nobility.

Keiser helped change opera from the mid-Baroque to the late-Baroque period. He introduced more varied arias, including both slower and faster types, into his operas, including bilingual and non-bilingual works, such as Nebukadnezar and Salomon, by the 1703/04 season.

In early 1704, while conducting Nebukadnezar and Salomon in Hamburg, the season ended suddenly, likely due to government issues. He traveled to Brunswick and Weissenfels, where he later produced his masterpiece, Almira, in July. He returned to Hamburg in 1705 to stage a revival of Händel’s Nero.

Keiser faced Händel again, but this time in his home city. Händel had changed his name to the Italian version, Giorgio Friderico Hendel. Händel performed two operas, Florindo and Daphne, in January 1708 after returning from Italy. Keiser responded by composing La forza dell’amore, oder, Die von Paris entführte Helena and Desiderius, König der Langobarden during the 1708/09 season, due to political instability.

Keiser likely became the director again when the city stabilized, possibly in 1710. He continued composing, creating his own passion music in 1712, which Händel challenged in 1716.

In 1718, after the Hamburg Opera closed, Keiser left Hamburg to find other work, traveling to Thuringia and Stuttgart. Three manuscripts of trio sonatas for flute, violin, and basso continuo from this period survive. In 1721, he returned to Hamburg but quickly left for Copenhagen with a Hamburg opera troupe, likely because of the growing influence of Georg Philipp Telemann, who was hired by the city magistrate in Keiser’s absence. Between 1721 and 1727, Keiser traveled between Hamburg and Copenhagen, earning the title of Master of the Danish Royal Chapel.

After the opera troupe dissolved, Keiser returned to Hamburg, but changes in the opera’s operation made it hard to repeat past successes. Three operas from 1722 to 1734 survive. His relationship with Telemann remained friendly, with Telemann performing several of Keiser’s operas.

In 1728, Keiser became the precentor at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Hamburg, succeeding Johann Mattheson. He composed mostly church music there until his death in 1739.

In an obituary, his colleague Mattheson described him as "the greatest opera composer in the world."

Major operas

(First performances in Hamburg, Theater am Gänsemarkt, unless stated otherwise)

• Basilius (Der königliche Schäfer oder Basilius in Arkadien) (probably Braunschweig, 1693)
• Cephalus und Procris (Braunschweig, 1694)
• Der geliebte Adonis [ de ] (1697)
• The Temple of Janus [ de ] (Der bei dem allgemeinen Welt-Frieden von dem Großen Augustus geschlossene Tempel des Janus) (1698)
• Iphigenia (Die wunderbar errettete Iphigenia) (1699)
• Herkules und Hebe (Die Verbindung des großen Herkules mit der schönen Hebe) (1699)
• La forza della virtù oder Die Macht der Tugend (1700)
• Störtebeker und Jödge Michels (2 sections, 1701)
• Der Sieg der fruchtbaren Pomona (1702)
• Die sterbende Eurydice oder Orpheus (2 sections, 1702)
• Der verführte Claudius [ de ] (produced early in 1703)
• Nebukadnezar, König zu Babylon (produced during the 1703/04 opera season)
• Salomon (produced during the 1703/04 opera season)
• Almira (Weissenfels, July 1704)
• Octavia (produced in August 1705)
• Die kleinmütige Selbst-Mörderin Lucretia oder Die Staats-Torheit des Brutus (1705)
• Masaniello furioso [ de ] (1706)
• Der angenehme Betrug (1707)
• La forza dell'amore oder Die von Paris entführte Helena (1709)
• Desiderius, König der Langobarden (1709)
• Arsinoe [ de ] (1710)
• Der durch den Fall des großen Pompejus erhöhete Julius Caesar (1710)
• Der hochmütige, gestürzte und wieder erhabene Croesus (1710, revised edition 1730)
• Der sich rächende Cupido [ de ] (1712, revised 1724)
• L'inganno fedele oder Der getreue Betrug (1714)
• Fredegunda [ de ] (1715)
• L'Amore verso la patria oder Der sterbende Cato (1715)
• Das zerstörte Troja oder Der durch den Tod Helenens versöhnte Achilles (1716)
• Die großmütige Tomyris [ de ] (1717)
• Jobates und Bellerophon (1717)
• Ulysses [ de ] (Copenhagen 1722)
• Bretislaus oder Die siegende Beständigkeit (1725)
• Der lächerliche Prinz Jodelet [ de ] (1726)
• Lucius Verus oder Die siegende Treue (1728, libretto: Vologeso)

Oratorios

• Der blutige und sterbende Jesus, Hamburg (1704), based on text by Christian Friedrich Hunold (Menantes)
• Thränen unter dem Kreutze Jesu, Hamburg (1711)
• Brockes Passion, Hamburg (1712), manuscript in Berlin
• Lukas-Passion Wir gingen all in der Irre, Hamburg (1715)
• Seelige / Erlösungs-Gedancken / Aus dem / Oratorio / Der / Zum Tode verurtheilte und gecreutzigte / Jesus … von / Reinhard Keisern,… Hamburg, Auf Unkosten des Autoris, und zu finden bey seel. Benjamin Schillers Wittwe im Thum / Anno 1715. Hamburg (1715) – a revised version of Thränen unter dem Kreutze Jesu
• Der siegende David, Hamburg (1717), manuscript in Berlin
• Oratorium Passionale 1729: Der blutige und sterbende Jesus, Hamburg (1729), based on text by Christian Friedrich Hunold (Menantes)

• Johannes-Passion – credited to Friedrich Nicolaus Bruhns (1637–1718)
• Markus-Passion Jesus Christus ist um unsrer Missetat willen verwundet, Hamburg (1705) – also credited to Bruhns and to Reinhard's father Gottfried