Reinhard KeiserArticle Free Pass Reinhard Keiser, (born Jan. 9,
1674, Teuchern, near Weissenfels, Saxony [Germany]—died Sept.
12, 1739, Hamburg), leading early composer of German opera. His
works bridged the Baroque style of the late 17th century and the
Rococo style galant of the early 18th century. Keiser attended
the Thomas School in Leipzig and about 1697 settled in Hamburg.
His nearly 70 operas, which span the period 1694 to 1734,
include Octavia (1705); Der angenehme Betrug, with arias by
Christoph Graupner (1707, revived 1931; “The Pleasant
Deception”); Croesus (c. 1711; revised 1730); and the comic
opera Der lächerliche Printz Jodelet (1726; “The Laughable
Prince Jodelet”). With his colleagues Johann Mattheson and G.P.
Telemann, Keiser attempted to establish a distinctively German
form of Baroque opera. His early stage works were entirely in
German, but Italian arias crept into his later operas under the
influence of the increasingly popular Neapolitan school. In his
last, Circe (1734), there were 21