About the work
Baroque Singspiel in three acts with a prologue by Reinhard Keiser to a libretto by Barthold Feind, premiered on 5 August 1705 at the Oper am Gänsemarkt in Hamburg. The work was written as a direct response to George Frideric Handel's now-lost opera "Nero" on the same subject, composed the same year, which Feind tightened dramatically for Keiser.
Plot
Emperor Nero desires Ormoena, wife of the captive Armenian king Tiridates, and orders his own wife Octavia to take her life. Piso rescues Octavia and incites a conspiracy against Nero; on the advice of the philosopher Seneca, the supposedly dead Octavia appears to Nero disguised as her own ghost to confront him with his crimes. Overcome with remorse, Nero finally pardons Piso and learns that Octavia is still alive, so that several couples are united by the end.
Cultural significance
Octavia is a sonic experiment: one aria calls for five bassoons, and the work introduced French horns into opera for the first time. Instead of a simple happy ending, Keiser combines a dance of the dead and grotesque, satirical touches with serious politics, which has kept the piece on stages through revivals in Karlsruhe (2004), Innsbruck (2017) and Halle (2025).