Susanne Ryden.(Opera Review)

Susanne Ryden

"LA BELLA CANTATRICE" Cantatas by Keiser. Capella Orlandi Bremen. Texts and translations. CPO 999956-2

Although his 1740 obituary referred to him as "the greatest opera composer in the world," Reinhard Keiser is known today mainly as the composer from whom Handel borrowed a considerable amount of material. Keiser ran the Hamburg opera house and was its chief composer when the young Handel was playing in the pit orchestra; many of Keiser's tunes ended up, after renovations, in the pages of Handel's later works.

Keiser is finally coming into his own, though, as recordings of several of his 100 operas are beginning to appear. CPO adds to the composer's growing discography with a recital of cantatas featuring soprano Susanne Ryden and Capella Orlandi Bremen.

The eight solo works included here, drawn from cantata collections published in 1713 and 1714, range from the aria "Salvate il mio sposo" (Save my spouse) to the lengthy, multi-movement "La Bella Cantatrice" (The Fair Songstress) and feature texts in Italian and German (though not in the same work, as often occurred in Keiser's operas). The texts are a cut above the conventional pastoral routines: here ...