Croesus on the pyre, Attic red-figure amphora, Louvre (G 197)

Croesus ( /ˈkriːsəs/ KREE-səs; Ancient Greek: Κροῖσος, Kroisos; 595 BC – c. 547? BC) was the king of Lydia from 560 to 547 BC until his defeat by the Persians.^[1] The fall of Croesus made a profound impact on the Hellenes, providing a fixed point in their calendar. "By the fifth century at least," J.A.S. Evans remarked, "Croesus had become a figure of myth, who stood outside the conventional restraints of chronology."^[2] Croesus was renowned for his wealth—Herodotus and Pausanias noted his gifts preserved at Delphi.^[3]

Wealth and coinage[link]

In Greek and Persian cultures the name of Croesus became a synonym for a wealthy man. Croesus' wealth remained proverbial beyond classical antiquity: in English, expressions such as "rich as Croesus" or "richer than Croesus" are used to indicate great wealth to this day. The earliest known such usage in English was John Gower's in Confessio amantis (1390):

That if the tresor of Cresus
And al the gold Octovien,
Forth with the richesse Yndien
Of Perles and of riche stones,
Were al togedre myn at ones...^[4]

Croesus is credited with issuing the first true gold coins with a standardised purity for general circulation. However, they were quite crude, and were made of electrum, a naturally occurring pale yellow alloy of gold and silver. The composition of these first coins was similar to alluvial deposits found in the silt of the Pactolus river, which ran through the Lydian capital, Sardis. Later coins, including some in the British Museum, were made from gold purified by heating with common salt to remove the silver.^[5] King Croesus' gold coins follow the first silver coins that had been minted by King Pheidon of Argos around 700 BC. In 546 BC, Croesus was defeated and captured by the Persians, who then adopted gold as the main metal for their coins.^[6][7]

Biography[link]

Aside from a poetical account of Croesus on the pyre in Bacchylides, there are three classical accounts of Croesus. Herodotus presents the Lydian accounts^[8] of the conversation with Solon (Histories 1.29-.33), the tragedy of Croesus' son Atys (Histories 1.34-.45) and the fall of Croesus (Histories 1.85-.89); Xenophon instances Croesus in his panegyric fictionalized biography of Cyrus: Cyropaedia, 7.1; and Ctesias, whose account^[9] is also an encomium of Cyrus.

Born about 595 BC, Croesus received tribute from the Ionian Greeks but was friendlier to the Hellenes than his father had been. Croesus traditionally gave refuge at one point to the Phrygian prince Adrastus. Herodotus tells that Adrastus exiled himself to Lydia after accidentally killing his brother. King Croesus welcomed him but then Adrastus accidentally killed Croesus' son, Atys. (Adrastus then committed suicide.)^[10]

Croesus' uneasy relations with the Greeks obscures the larger fact that he was the last bastion of the Ionian cities against the increasing Persian power in Anatolia. He began preparing a campaign against Cyrus the Great of Persia. Before setting out he turned to the Delphic oracle and the oracle of Amphiaraus to inquire whether he should pursue this campaign and whether he should also seek an alliance. The oracles answered, with typical ambiguity, that if Croesus attacked the Persians, he would destroy a great empire – this would become one of the most famous oracular statements from Delphi.

Croesus was also advised to find out which Greek state was most powerful and to ally himself with it.^[11] Croesus, now feeling secure, formed an alliance with Sparta in addition to those he had with Amasis II of Egypt and Nabonidus of Babylonia,^[12] and launched his campaign against the Persian Empire in 547 BC.^[13] He was intercepted near the Halys River in central Anatolia and an inconclusive battle was fought. As was usual in those days, the armies would disband for winter and Croesus did accordingly. Cyrus did not, however, and he attacked Croesus in Sardis, capturing him. It became clear that the powerful empire Croesus was about to destroy was his own.

In Bacchylides' ode,^[14] composed for Hiero of Syracuse, who won the chariot race at Olympia in 468, Croesus with his wife and family mounted the funeral pyre, but before the flames could envelop the king, he was snatched up by Apollo and spirited away to the Hyperboreans. Herodotus' version includes Apollo in more "realistic" mode: Cyrus, repenting of the immolation of Croesus, could not put out the flames until Apollo intervened.^[15]

Apollo's intervention[link]

Herodotus tells us that in the Lydian account, Croesus was placed upon a great pyre by Cyrus' orders, for Cyrus wanted to see if any of the heavenly powers would appear to save him from being burned alive. The pile was set ablaze, and as Cyrus the Great watched he saw Croesus call out "Solon" three times. He asked the interpreters to find out why he said this word with such resignation and agony. The interpreters returned the answer that Solon had warned Croesus of the fickleness of good fortune: see Interview with Solon below. This touched Cyrus, who realized that he and Croesus were much the same man, and he bade the servants to quench the blazing fire as quickly as they could. They tried to do this, but the flames were not to be mastered. According to the story, Croesus called out to Apollo and prayed to him. The sky had been clear and the day without a breath of wind, but soon dark clouds gathered and a storm with rain of such violence that the flames were speedily extinguished. Cyrus, convinced by this that Croesus was a good man, made Croesus an advisor who served Cyrus 'well' and later Cyrus's son by Cassandane, Cambyses. Recently, Stephanie West has argued that the historical Croesus did in fact die on the pyre, and that the stories of him as a 'wise adviser' to the courts of Cyrus and Cambyses are purely legendary, showing similarities to the sayings of Ahiqar.^[16]

It is not known when exactly Croesus died, although it is traditionally dated 547 BC, after Cyrus' conquest. In the Nabonidus Chronicle it is said that Cyrus "marched against the country -- , killed its king,^[17] took his possessions, put there a garrison of his own." Unfortunately, all that remains of the name of the country are traces of the first cuneiform sign. It has long been assumed that this sign should have been LU, so that the country referred to would be Lydia, with Croesus as the king that was killed. However, J. Cargill has shown that this restoration was based upon wishful thinking rather than actual traces of the sign LU.^[18] Instead, J. Oelsner and R. Rollinger have both read the sign as Ú, which might imply a reference to Urartu.^[19] With Herodotus' account also being unreliable chronologically in this case, as J.A.S. Evans has demonstrated,^[20] this means that we have no way of dating the fall of Sardis; theoretically, it may even have taken place after the fall of Babylon. Evans also asks what happened after the episode at the pyre and suggests that "neither the Greeks nor the Babylonians knew what really happened to Croesus."^[21]

Interview with Solon[link]

The episode of Croesus' interview with Solon^[22] reported by Herodotus^[23] is in the nature of a philosophical disquisition on the subject "Which man is happy?" It is legendary rather than historical. Croesus, secure in his own wealth and happiness, poses the question and is disappointed by Solon's response: that three have been happier than Croesus, Tellus, who died fighting for his country, and Kleobis and Biton, brothers who died peacefully in their sleep when their mother prayed for their perfect happiness, after they had demonstrated filial piety by drawing her to a festival in an oxcart themselves. Croesus' hubristic happiness was reversed by the tragic deaths of his accidentally-killed son and, in Critias, his wife's suicide at the fall of Sardis. Thus the "happiness" of Croesus is presented as a moralistic exemplum of the fickleness of Tyche, a theme that gathered strength from the fourth century, revealing its late date.

The story was later retold and elaborated by Ausonius in The Masque of the Seven Sages, in the Suda (entry "Μᾶλλον ὁ Φρύξ," which adds Aesop and the Seven Sages of Greece), and by Tolstoy in his short story Croesus and Fate.

See also[link]

• Karun Treasure
• Herodotus
• Oxford Classical Dictionary

Notes[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Croesus

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Croesus

• Herodotus' account of Croesus (from the Perseus Project): see 1.6-94; contains links Croesus was the son of Alyattes II and continued the conquest of Ionian cities of Asia Minor that his father had begun to both English and Greek versions
• An in-depth account of Croesus' life, by Carlos Parada
• Livius, Croesus by Jona Lendering
• Croesus on Ancient History Encyclopedia
• Gold Coin of Croesus a BBC podcast from the series: "A History of the World in 100 Objects"

Reinhard Keiser (9 January 1674 – 12 September 1739) was a popular German opera composer based in Hamburg. He wrote over a hundred operas, and in 1745 Johann Adolph Scheibe considered him an equal to Johann Kuhnau, George Frideric Handel and Georg Philipp Telemann (also related to the Hamburg Opera), but his work was largely forgotten for many decades.

Biography[link]

Keiser was born in Teuchern (in present Saxony-Anhalt), son of the organist and teacher Gottfried Keiser (born about 1650), and educated by other organists in the town and then from 11 at the Thomas School in Leipzig, where his teachers included Johann Schelle and Johann Kuhnau, direct predecessors of Johann Sebastian Bach.

In 1694, he became court-composer to the duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, though he had probably come to the court already as early as 1692 to study its renowned operas, which had been going on since 1691, when the city had built a 1200-seater opera-house. Keiser put on his first opera Procris und Cephalus there and, the same year, his opera Basilius was put on at Hamburg and, as the musicologist Johann Mattheson noted, "received with great success and applause."

This was a fruitful period for him - composing not only operas, but arias, duets, cantatas, sérénades, church music and big oratorios, background music - all for the city's use.

About 1697 he settled permanently in Hamburg, and became the chief composer at the highly renowned Gänsemarktoper (now rebuilt as the Hamburg State Opera) in Hamburg from 1697 to 1717, however was actually first the director in 1702, and wasn't at various times from then to 1717, almost each time due to political instabilites.^[1] From 1703 to 1709, Keiser changed the opera house from being a public institution to a commercial venture with two to three performances a week, in contrast to the opera houses intended for the nobility.

He helped transition opera from the mid-baroque idea of it, to the late-baroque idea of it. He not only did that, but even introduced a more varied type of aria into his operas, with more passive arias, and also faster arias being introduced into his bilinugal and non-bilinugal operas all by the 1703-04 season, with his five-star works, Nebukadnezar, and Salomon. With Keiser's operas is the framework of his younger rival, Händel's works.

Early in 1704, when he was conducting the operas Nebukadnezar and Salomon in Hamburg, the season had to be unexpectedly concluded, for reasons most likely related to government affairs. So he went to Brunswick, and afterward Weissenfels, to reconnect with areas he was previously active in. He ended up coming out with a masterpiece, Almira, at Weissenfells, in July. He stayed there for a while, spending many holidays there, eventually heading back to Hamburg shortly after Easter in 1705, to produce a comeback to Georg Friedrich Händel's Nero, produced in February 1705. Surely Keiser would be able to produce a success to the 20 year old composer's ambitious work.^[2]

Keiser would have to face Händel again, but this time he would be at home, and Händel had switched to the phonetic Italian version of his name, Georgio Friderico Hendel. Hendel would put on what was planned as a double opera, but was in fact two, Florindo, and Daphne; he did that in January 1708, coming back from Italy. Keiser would counter that by eventually coming out with La forza dell'amore oder Die von Paris entführte Helena and Desiderius, König der Langobarden in the 1708-09 season, but not as the theater's manager, but as someone responding to political insecurities causing the opera company to be disorderly. Keiser worked in the background.^[3]

Keiser would continue as the director probably when things got more stable in the city, maybe in 1710, and he advanced in composing, coming with his own passionmusik in 1712, which Hendel would readily challenge in 1716.

In 1718, with the Hamburg Opera defunct, he left Hamburg to seek other employment, going to Thuringia and then Stuttgart. From this period three manuscripts of sonatas in trio for flute, violin and basso continuo survive. During the summer 1721, he returned to Hamburg, but only a few weeks later made a rapid exit to Copenhagen with a Hamburg opera troop, probably because of the growing influence of Georg Philipp Telemann, engaged by the city magistrate in Keiser's absence. Between 1721 and 1727, Keiser traveled back and forth between Hamburg and Copenhagen, receiving the title of Master of the Danish Royal Chapel.

Oper am Gänsemarkt

.

After the dissolution of the opera troop, Keiser returned once more to Hamburg, but changes in its modus operandi made repeating past success difficult. Three operas from the period between 1722 and 1734 survive. Personal relations with Telemann remained good, with Telemann programming several productions of Keiser's operas.

In 1728 he became the St. Mary's Cathedral precentor of Hamburg, and wrote largely church music there until his death in 1739.

Major operas[link]

(First performances in Hamburg, Theater am Gänsemarkt, unless stated otherwise)

• Basilius (Der königliche Schäfer oder Basilius in Arkadien) (probably Braunschweig, 1693)
• Cephalus und Procris (Braunschweig, 1694)
• Der geliebte Adonis (1697)^[4]
• Janus (Der bei dem allgemeinen Welt-Frieden von dem Großen Augustus geschlossene Tempel des Janus) (1698)
• Iphigenia (Die wunderbar errettete Iphigenia) (1699)
• Herkules und Hebe (Die Verbindung des großen Herkules mit der schönen Hebe) (1699)
• La forza della virtù oder Die Macht der Tugend (1700)
• Störtebeker und Jödge Michels (2 sections, 1701)
• Die sterbende Eurydice oder Orpheus (2 sections, 1702)
• Claudius (produced early in 1703)^[5]
• Nebukadnezar, König zu Babylon (produced during the 1703-04 opera season)^[6]
• Salomon (produced during the 1703-04 opera season)^[7]
• Almira (Weissenfels, July 1704)^[8]
• Octavia (produced in August 1705)^[9]
• Die kleinmütige Selbst-Mörderin Lucretia oder Die Staats-Torheit des Brutus (1705)
• Masagniello (1706)
• Der angenehme Betrug (1707)
• La forza dell'amore oder Die von Paris entführte Helena (1709)
• Desiderius, König der Langobarden (1709)
• Der durch den Fall des großen Pompejus erhöhete Julius Caesar (1710)
• Der hochmütige, gestürzte und wieder erhabene Croesus (1710, revised edition 1730)
• L'inganno fedele oder Der getreue Betrug (1714)
• Fredegunda (opera) (1715)^[10]
• L'Amore verso la patria oder Der sterbende Cato (1715)
• Das zerstörte Troja oder Der durch den Tod Helenens versöhnte Achilles (1716)
• Die großmütige Tomyris (1717)
• Jobates und Bellerophon (1717)
• Ulysses (opera)|Ulysses (Copenhagen 1722)
• Bretislaus oder Die siegende Beständigkeit (1725)
• Der lächerliche Printz Jodelet (opera) (1726)
• Lucius Verus oder Die siegende Treue (1728)

Oratorios[link]

• Der blutige und sterbende Jesus, Hamburg (1704), on words of Christian Friedrich Hunold (Menantes).
• Thränen unter dem Kreutze Jesu, Hamburg (1711).
• Brockespassion. Hamburg (1712) MS in Berlin.^[11][12]
• Lukas-Passion "Wir gingen all in der Irre". Hamburg (1715).
• "Seelige / Erlösungs-Gedancken / Aus dem / ORATORIO / Der / Zum Tode verurtheilte und gecreutzigte / JESUS ... von / Reinhard Keisern,... HAMBURG, Auf Unkosten des Autoris, und zu finden bey seel. Benjamin Schillers Wittwe im Thum / Anno 1715". Hamburg (1715) - Revision of "Thränen unter dem Kreutze Jesu".
• Der siegende David. Hamburg (1717) MS in Berlin.
• "Oratorium Passionale 1729 : Der blutige und sterbende Jesus", Hamburg (1729), on words of Christian Friedrich Hunold (Menantes).

Now attributed to Friedrich Nicolaus Brauns (1637-1718)

• Johannes-Passion
• Markus-Passion Jesus Christus ist umb unsrer Missetät willen verwundt Hamburg 1705.^[13]

References[link]

1. ^ Burrows, Donald (1996). Handel. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 17,20,449. ISBN 0-19-816649-4. 
2. ^ Burrows, Donald (1996). Handel. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 17,19. ISBN 0-19-816649-4. 
3. ^ Burrows, Donald (1996). Handel. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 20. ISBN 0-19-816649-4. 
4. ^ recording: Ihlenfeldt CPO
5. ^ Burrows, Donald (1996). Handel. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 17. ISBN 0-19-816649-4. 
6. ^ Burrows, Donald (1996). Handel. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 17. ISBN 0-19-816649-4. 
7. ^ Burrows, Donald (1996). Handel. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 17. ISBN 0-19-816649-4. 
8. ^ Burrows, Donald (1996). Handel. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 17. ISBN 0-19-816649-4. 
9. ^ Burrows, Donald (1996). Handel. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 19. ISBN 0-19-816649-4. 
10. ^ recording: Hammer, Naxos
11. ^ Reinhard Keiser. Brockes Passion (Hamburg 1712). cpo 999852-2 1CD 2000. Kenneth Montgomery, Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra & Choir. Withdrawn because of licensing problems.
12. ^ Edition from Edition Musica Poetica, edited by Cosimo Stawiarski (June 2007)
13. ^ Recordings 1. Parthenia Barock. Brembeck. Christophorus 1993. 2. Capella Sancti Georgi, Musica Alta Ripa. Chrismon 2010

• The Reinhard Keiser Society
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

External links[link]

• Free scores by Reinhard Keiser at the International Music Score Library Project
• Free scores by Reinhard Keiser in the Werner Icking Music Archive (WIMA)
• Free scores by Reinhard Keiser in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)

This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (April 2011)

Hermann Prey (11 July 1929 – 22 July 1998) was a German lyric baritone, best known for his lieder renditions and for light comic roles in opera.

Biography[link]

Hermann Prey was born in Berlin and grew up in Germany. He was scheduled to be drafted when World War II ended. He studied voice at the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin and won the prize of the Frankfurt contest of the Hessischer Rundfunk in 1952.

He began to sing in song recitals and made his operatic debut the next year in Wiesbaden. He joined the Staatsoper, where he sang until 1960. During his last years in Hamburg, he also made frequent guest appearances elsewhere, including the Salzburg Festival.

He sang frequently at the Metropolitan Opera between 1960 and 1970 and made his Bayreuth debut in 1965. Although he often sang Verdi early in his career, he later concentrated more on Mozart and Richard Strauss. Prey was well known for playing Figaro (Mozart and Rossini), but he played other Mozart roles at least equally often, particularly Papageno and Guglielmo. He also played, and recorded, the Count in The Marriage of Figaro. He is regarded by many as the best Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus operetta.

He was at home with comic opera Italian-style, displaying scenic intelligence, liveliness and hilarity. His virtuoso agility and great comic acting made him an obvious choice for numerous productions of Mozart's and Rossini's operas in the 1970s. In 1972 he performed as Figaro in Jean-Pierre Ponnelle's television film of Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia with Teresa Berganza as Rosina, Luigi Alva as Almaviva and conductor Claudio Abbado. He appeared alongside Fritz Wunderlich in the live televised version of Il Barbiere di Siviglia in its German translation, Der Barbier von Sevilla. He also portrayed Figaro in 1976 in Ponnelle's film of Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro.

Prey also sang operetta and performed on German television, becoming extremely popular with television audiences. He shared media-celebrity with Fritz Wunderlich until the latter's untimely death, often playing Papageno to Wunderlich's Tamino.

He is best remembered for his recitals, his first American recital having been given in 1956. He was a gifted interpreter of Schubert, as well as other Lieder (together with the German pianist Sebastian Peschko). He also appeared frequently in concert, particularly in the Bach Passions and Brahms' A German Requiem. A videotaped performance of Schubert's lieder-cycle Schwanengesang is available.

Prey possessed a clear, polished tone - darker and deeper-sounding than his slightly older contemporary Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, but equally refined and equally capable of soaring into the tenor range without the smallest suggestion of vocal effort.

He recorded a multi-volume set for Phillips, tracing the history of the Lied from the Minnesänger to the twentieth century. In addition, he released numerous recordings of opera and song.

Unlike Fischer-Dieskau, Prey wisely limited his Wagner to the soft, high-baritone roles Wolfram and Beckmesser. He can be seen on video in the latter role, opposite Bernd Weikl.

Starting in 1982, he taught at the Musikhochschule Hamburg, and he wrote an autobiography which was translated as First Night Fever (ISBN 0-7145-3998-8).

In 1988, he directed a production of The Marriage of Figaro in Salzburg. His son Florian is also a baritone.

He died in Krailling, Bavaria.

For many years, Michael Endres was the pianist to Hermann Prey.

References[link]

• Fritz Wunderlich's Colleagues: Hermann Prey
• Prey - Stille meine Liebe: documentary DVD about Hermann Prey

External links[link]

• Interview with Hermann Prey by Bruce Duffie, October 12, 1985