About the work
Baroque opera pasticcio in five acts ("scherzthafftes Sing-Spiel") to a libretto by Johann Philipp Praetorius, based on Thomas Corneille's comedy "Le Geôlier de soi-même" (1655). Premiered in 1726 at the Oper am Gänsemarkt in Hamburg, it was composed mostly by Reinhard Keiser, who supplemented his own music with arias by Antonio Caldara, Francesco Gasparini and other composers as well as reused material of his own – including recitatives from the 1680 Hamburg opera on the same Corneille subject, "Sein selbs Gefangener" by Johann Wolfgang Franck.
Plot
In medieval southern Italy, the fugitive crown prince Federic and the poor idler Jodelet are mistaken for one another. While the real prince courts Princess Laura under a false name, the supposed prince, Jodelet, sits in prison. Once the mix-up is resolved, two weddings seal the peace between Naples and Sicily.
Cultural significance
As a pasticcio, the work combines music by several composers with material from a Hamburg opera on the same comic subject written 46 years earlier – a technique the Gänsemarkt opera used to reuse successful music. At the premiere, the celebrated soprano Margaretha Susanna Kayser sang the role of Erminda; a 2004 new production under Alessandro De Marchi, by contrast, drew criticism for its "visual anachronisms".