Opera Scotland

Mozart and Salieri 1986Scottish National Orchestra

Read more about the opera Mozart and Salieri

As part of the 1986 autumn season, the enterprising Principal Guest Conductor Matthias Bamert conducted the SNO in an interesting concert pairing Rimsky's little Pushkin drama with a performance of Mozart's Requiem, in which the tenor and baritone were joined by soprano Joan Rodgers and mezzo Penelope Walker.

Most of the audience will have found the concept a useful one, if only through knowledge of the hugely popular play Amadeus , by Peter Shaffer, or the Milos Forman cinema interpretation of it. This combined the two elements, with the dying Mozart desperately trying to finish his Requiem, as recalled by Salieri in old age. Altogether a clever piece of programming.