Flavius Bertaridus
Music by Georg Philipp Telemann · libretto by Christoph Gottlieb Wend · premiered 1729 · at Oper am Gänsemarkt
Flavius Bertaridus, König der Langobarden (TVWV 21:27) is an opera by Georg Philipp Telemann performed in Hamburg at the Oper am Gänsemarkt in 1729. It is Telemann's only surviving opera in the German equivalent of the opera seria genre. The opera is based on the libretto Flavio Bertarido, Ré de Longobardi by Stefano Ghisi Nobil Veneto, which was originally set by Carlo Francesco Pollarolo at the Teatro San Giovanni Grisostomo in 1706. Christoph Gottlieb Wend and Telemann himself worked on rewriting the recitatives, and several of the arias and adding German chorus sections, but preserved some Italian aria texts which, according to the fashion as seen in Telemann's Orpheus, was normal at the cosmopolitan Hamburg Opera. However Wend and Telemann departed from Hamburg custom by avoiding all comic parts in the opera, following the agenda of Johann Mattheson, rather than the preferences of the largely middle class audience.
Text from the Wikipedia article "Flavius Bertaridus", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
About the Composer
Georg Philipp Telemann (German: [ˈɡeːɔʁk ˈfiːlɪp ˈteːləman]; 24 March [O.S. 14 March] 1681 – 25 June 1767) was a German Baroque composer and multi-instrumentalist. He is one of the most prolific composers in history, at least in terms of surviving works. Telemann was considered by his contemporaries to be one of the leading German composers of the time, and he was compared favourably both to his friend Johann Sebastian Bach, who made Telemann the godfather and namesake of his son Carl Philipp Emanuel, and to George Frideric Handel, whom Telemann also knew personally. Almost completely self-taught in music, he became a composer against his family's wishes. After studying in Magdeburg,…
Text from the Wikipedia article "Georg Philipp Telemann", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Other Operas by Georg Philipp Telemann
- Germanicus (1704)
- Der neumodische Liebhaber Damon (1719)
- Der geduldige Socrates (1721)
- Emma und Eginhard (1728)
- Don Quichotte auf der Hochzeit des Comacho (1761)