Spare a thought for Georg Philipp Telemann. Friend to Bach and Handel, and godfather to Bach’s son Carl Philipp Emanuel, he penned more than 3,000 works including 29 extant operas. Yet, for all his fecundity of invention and consistent quality, we hear his sparkling music far less often than he deserves. If people are unsure where to begin, how about Pimpinone?
First performed 300 years ago in Hamburg, its three acts were intended as comic intermezzi for a production of Handel’s opera seria Tamerlano (total running time a gruelling five hours!) With an easy to follow plot and laugh-out-loud musical numbers, it would have come as welcome light relief, assuming people stuck around to listen.
