This live recording, with applause, sparkles with life throughout. Musically, it is a piece of considerable melodic appeal. The arias, several of them with Italianate coloratura elements, are wonderfully varied in character and in instrumental colour…Labadie’s direction is vital and stylish and Telemann gives us some memorable music.

The music is attractive but, on the whole, bland. Once in a while Telemann will do something unexpected...The cast is uniformly excellent...André Morsch brings such authority to the part as the music allows...In the trouser role of Sophi, Robin Johannsen is also heroic, but finds a touching wistfulness in the aria that concludes the second act.

It is indeed rare to encounter such a sizeable cast without a single weak link...The Miriways of André Morsch is notable for the rounded richness of his baritone, while the secondary lovers in the shape of the soprano Lydia Teuscher (Nisibis) and the baritone Michael Nagy (Murzah) are also admirable...Zemir, the bad man of the opera, is strongly projected by the soprano Anett Fritsch, while the baritone Dominik Köninger’s Scandor makes the most of the rollicking drunken scene.