Born Legnago, 18 August 1750.
Died Vienna, 7 May 1825.
Italian composer.
Antonio Salieri has become known to posterity largely because of the fabricated idea that he was jealous of Mozart's talent and poisoned him. There is no evidence to support this theory, and the two composers seem to have had a healthy respect for one another. However the myth arose very early, becoming the subject of a short drama by Pushkin (given operatic form by Rimsky-Korsakov) and, in 1980, the hugely entertaining and well-researched play Amadeus by Peter Schaffer, initially directed by Peter Hall, which also became a successful film, directed by Milos Forman
The composer was taken by a patron to live in Vienna when he was an orphan of fifteen, and he was based there for the rest of his life, apart from a period from 1778 when he composed for Milan and Venice. Much influenced by the librettist Metastasio and composer Gluck, he enjoyed a hugely successful career, for many years the most influential musician in Vienna. As well as composing a large number of operas and copious quantities of church music, he also became a much respected teacher.
Little of his operatic work has been performed in Britain. Some pieces have been revived elsewhere in recent years, and it is becoming clear that he will become a focus for research in future years.
Operas performed in Scotland are shown in bold:-
01 Le donne letterate (1770) ()
02 L’amore innocente (1770) (Boccherini)
03 Don Chisciotte alle nozze di Gamache (1770) ()
04 La moda (1771) ()
05 Armida (1771) (Coltellini)
06 La fiera di Venezia (Vienna 1772) (Boccherini)
07 Il barone di Rocca antica (1772) ()
08 La secchia rapita (Vienna 1772) (Boccherini)
09 La locandiera (1773) ()
10 La calamita de’ cuori (1774) ()
11 La finta scema (Vienna 1775) (de Gamerra)
12 Daliso e Delmita (1776) ()
13 L’Europa riconosciuta (Milan 1778) (Verazi)
14 La scuola de’ gelosi (Venice 1778) (anon, rev Mazzolà)
15 La partenza inaspettata (1779) ()
16 Der Rauchfangkehrer (Vienna 1781) ()
17 Semiramide (1782) ()
18 Les Danaïdes (Paris 1784) (du Roullet & Tschudy)
19 Il ricco d’un giorno (Vienna 1784) (da Ponte)
20 La grotta di Trofonio (Vienna 1785) (Casti)
21 Prima la musica e poi le parole (Vienna 1786) (Casti)
22 Les Horaces (Paris 1786) ()
23 Tarare (Paris 1787) (Beaumarchais)
24 Axur, re d’Ormus (Vienna 1788) (da Ponte)
25 Cublai, gran can de Tartari (1786-8, prod Wurzburg 1998) (Casti)
26 Il talismano (1788) ()
27 Il pastor fido (1789) ()
28 La cifra (Vienna 1789) (da Ponte)
29 Catilina (1792, prod Darmstadt 1994) (Casti)
30 Il mondo alla rovescia (1795) ()
31 Eraclito e Democrito (1795) ()
32 Palmira, regina di Persia (Vienna 1795) (da Gamerra)
33 Il moro (1796) ()
34 Falstaff, ossia Le tre burle (Vienna 1799) (Defranceschi)
35 Cesare in Farmacusa (1800) ()
36 L’Angiolina (1800) ()
37 Annibale in Capua (Trieste 1801) ()
38 La bella selvaggia (1802) ()
39 Die Hussiten vor Naumburg (1803) ()
40 Die Negersclaven (1804) ()
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