Germanicus

Telemann had made reference to writing twenty operas during his four years in Leipzig, but sadly the scores have been lost and very few librettos and arias are extant. Michael Maul has proven that some 40 arias discovered at the Frankfurt University Library were from Telemann’s Germanicus and its modern premiere took place with Gotthold Schwarz and the Saxon Baroque Orchestra. Germanicus is a tale of love, lust and political intrigue based very loosely on events during the first-century occupation of Teutonic territory by the Romans. Since only arias survive, for recitatives Maul substituted a tongue-in-cheek narrative wittily delivered by actor Dieter Bellmann.