The invention relates to a regulatable optical amplifier which has at least two series-connected amplifier groups, each amplifier group having a regulating device. Connected upstream of the optical amplifier is a power monitor device for detecting changes in the input power, whose electrical output is connected both to the first regulating device and to the second regulating device. In line with the invention, the first and second regulating devices have a control line inserted between them which comprises a series circuit containing a high-pass filter, a delay and signal-shaping unit and a feed-forward control unit for generating a correction signal for the second regulating device. In this arrangement, the high-pass filter has a cut-off frequency which corresponds approximately to the cut-off frequency of the first amplifier group. The inventive control line optimizes the regulating response such that power transients in the output signal from the optical amplifier are reduced particularly after an abrupt change in the input power.