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Antonio Salieri Biography

Antonio Salieri

(Legnano, present-day Italy, 1750-Vienna, 1825) Italian composer and pedagogue.Although in his time he was one of the most appreciated composers, today he is better known for his rivalry with Mozart than for his own creative work, to the point of being the protagonist of a legend, which emerged during Romanticism, which accused him of having poisoned the genius of Salzburg.

Antonio Salieri

Salieri was educated in Venice, from which he moved to Vienna in 1766 in the company of Leopold Gassmann, his teacher from that time on moment.It was this Bohemian composer who introduced him to the Austrian court, in the service of which the musician's entire career was to develop.In Vienna he became acquainted with Gluck, Scarlatti, Metastasio, and Calzabigi and became known as the author of comic operas at the court theater.In 1771, with Armida , he began serious opera.In 1774 he succeeded Gassmann as court composer.Between 1778 and 1780 he traveled through Italy, where he had some of his works performed in various towns in the country.Returning to Vienna, he achieved one of his greatest successes with the German opera The Chimney Sweep .

In 1784 he premiered his masterpiece in Paris: the opera Las Danaides .In it, the clear melodic vein blends admirably with a strong drama: arias, duets, choruses, intermediates, everything happens in a suggestive crescendo, in which the music and the argument merge in a consciousness of expressive values ​​that already announces , in a sense, to the romantic theater.In the first performance of Las Danaides , Salieri appeared as Gluck's "collaborator", but in subsequent performances, after the great success, the Italian master revealed himself as the sole author of the work and his name reached the peak of fame.

Then, in Vienna, he brought to the scene the comic compositions The Grotto of Trofonio (1785) and Prima la musica e poi le parole (1786 ).The first of them was one of the most successful on the Viennese stages of its time.The overture is undoubtedly his best page: he understands the various themes, beginning with that of Trofonio when he evokes the spirits; then some instrumental recitatives alternate with movements of a playful country tone or of a grotesquely serious character.This overture, important for the richness of its elaboration in contrast to what was usual in its time, is only comparable for its maturity of form with those of the last Mozartian operas.On the other hand, the musical value of the two acts is lower.

During the period 1788-1824 he held the position of the Kapellmeister at the Austrian court.At that time he also developed an important didactic activity; his disciples included Beethoven, Schubert, and Liszt.Of his other operas, mention should be made of Le donne letterate (1770), Don Chisciotte (1770), L'Europa riconosciuta (1778), Tarare (1787) and Falstaff (1799).

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