Reinhard Keiser war eine schillernde Musikerpersönlichkeit. Zahlreiche Anekdoten wurden über sein ausschweifendes Liebesleben und seine finanziellen Experimente überliefert, wenngleich die meisten davon in das Reich der Legenden zu zählen sind. Heute steht sein umfangreiches Opernschaffen im Zentrum der wissenschaftlichen Auseinandersetzung, galt er doch als der herausragendste Vertreter der Barockoper in Deutschland. Opernhaft erklingt auch seine ausladende Markus-Passion mit hochdramatischer Textausdeutung, mannigfaltigen Arien in italienischer Manier und einem farbigen Orchesterapparat.

Following the success of her 2011 album, Diva Divo, mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato presents an exciting collection of virtuosic arias in her 2012 release on Virgin, Drama Queens. Drawing on royal roles in Baroque operas by Handel, Monteverdi, and Haydn, as well as selections from such minor composers as Orlandini, Porta, Keiser, Hasse, Cesti, and Giacomelli, DiDonato demonstrates both her impressive vocal abilities and a wide range of characterizations. Supported by the period ensemble Il Complesso Barocco, conducted by Alan Curtis, DiDonato sings with dynamic power and exquisite embellishments, executing runs and ornaments with sparkling brilliance and projecting her voice with ease. But even more important than her technical prowess is her charismatic presentation of these 17th and 18th century opera heroines, whose passionate emotions and exaggerated behavior are wonderfully realized in DiDonato's dramatic interpretations.

Reinhard Keiser’s Der blutige und sterbende Jesus is not only the very first German Passion oratorio but also a highly suspenseful contribution to the Passion season. Lost for many years, it is now available for listening on CD in the revised version of 1729. The dramatic and musical design of Keiser’s work is astonishing. As in the Italian oratorio type that gained currency after 1700, there is no Evangelist or other narrator, which means that the work has a purely dramatic structure. Even though Keiser’s librettist Christian Friedrich Hunold, whose pseudonym was »Menantes,« did not cite any one of the four Evangelists word for word in his adaptation of the Passion narrative, it is quite evident that the poetic elaboration is (primarily) modelled on Luther’s translation of the Gospel of Matthew.

CPO’s rediscovery of Church Music from Hamburg (1600-1800) continues with a concert, broadcast live on Deutschlandradio Kultur, featuring rediscovered works by Reinhard Keiser. Only three oratorios by Reinhard Keiser exist in full. Many shorter pieces, fragments, and works of uncertain authorship still lie unpublished in archives and libraries.

Keiser dominated the Hamburg opera scene between 1697, when Adonis was first performed, and 1717, resuming activities there some six years later. Christian Postel’s plot centres around Ovid’s celebrated account of the love affair between Adonis and Venus, who, in this version of the story is jealously watched over by Mars. Postel’s libretto is very long-winded and not well-sustained; but it offered Keiser the opportunity to provide over three-and-a-half hours of music, much of which, especially in Act III, is of enormous charm and variety.