The Composer

Johann Adolf Hasse, born in Bergedorf near Hamburg in 1699, studied with Porpora between 1722 and 1725 and with the elder Scarlatti in Naples, and rose to become one of the most successful opera composers of his generation. Apart from pieces by his court composer, Carl Heinrich Graun, for 30 years King Frederick II programmed almost exclusively Hasse operas at his new Unter den Linden opera house. The composer, who had been court composer in Dresden since 1733, also left his mark on the repertoire favoured by Frederick’s sister, the Margravine of Bayreuth. Wilhelmine commissioned various operas from Hasse to celebrate weddings and birthdays in Bayreuth, and in 1748 invited him to Bayreuth to open her opera house with his Ezio and Artaserse. Of the seventeen operas performed at the Margravial Opera House during her lifetime, five were by Hasse. He was the most frequently performed composer in this theatre.