Reinhard Kaiser

1674-1739

Born in Hamburg, the son of the organist, composer and teacher Gottfried Keiser, Reinhard should have had the best of starts in life for a composer. Unfortunately his father abandoned the family while Reinhard was still young. His early musical education was a result of the charity of fellow organists in Hamburg.

He moved to Leipzig at the tender age of 11 to further his musical education, presumably because he showed promise. Here he was taught by Schelle and Kuhnau, leading composers of the day.

By the age of 18 he had moved to Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel where a recently built opera house was attracting attention. He was already composing operas and in 1693 his first opera Der königliche Schäfer oder Basilius in Arcadien was put on. It must have made some impact as a year later Reinhard had been made court composer!

Operatic workscame thick and fast with premieres in Brunswick and Hamburg. By 1695 he had relocated back to Hamburg, the city of his birth. Here he became Kapellmeister to the Hamburg Opera.

Aside from forays abroad to see to the premiere of his works in places such as Copenhagen and Stuttgart, he remained in Hamburg until his death and continued composing at a rate of knots. He is estimated to have left behind around 80 operas and some 40 or so singspiels.

In 1728 he retired from writing opera and between then until his death eleven years later, he concentrated on writing church music.