Antonio Salieri
Antonio Salieri was born on the 18th of August 1750 in the town of Legnago, located south of Verona within the Republic of Venice. His early musical education began at home under the guidance of his older brother Francesco Salieri. Francesco had previously studied with the famous violinist and composer Giuseppe Tartini. The young Antonio also received lessons from Giuseppe Simoni, who served as the organist for the local cathedral. Simoni himself had been a pupil of Padre Giovanni Battista Martini. Salieri later recalled little about his childhood except for three specific passions: sugar, reading, and music. He twice ran away from home without permission to hear his elder brother play violin concertos during festival days in neighboring churches. One such incident resulted in him being chastised by his father after he failed to greet a local priest with proper respect. Salieri responded to this reprimand by stating that the priest's organ playing displeased him because it sounded too theatrical.
Salieri arrived in Vienna on the 15th of June 1766 accompanied by Florian Leopold Gassmann. This marked the beginning of a lifelong relationship between the monarch and the musician that would last until Emperor Joseph II died in 1790. Gassmann took the orphaned boy to the Italian Church to consecrate his teaching and service to God. This event left a deep impression on Salieri for the rest of his life. His education included instruction in Latin and Italian poetry by Fr. Don Pietro Tommasi. He studied the German language and European literature alongside his musical training. His theory lessons focused on harmony and counterpoint using Johann Fux's Gradus ad Parnassum. Salieri translated this text during each Latin lesson. He lived with Gassmann even after the master married, an arrangement that continued until Gassmann's death and Salieri's own marriage in 1774. Few compositions from this early period survive, though a Mass in C major dated the 2nd of August 1767 remains as evidence of his sacred work.
Salieri composed over thirty-five original dramas across three languages during his career. His first full opera Le donne letterate premiered during the winter and carnival season of 1770. It was based on Molière's play The Learned Ladies with a libretto by Giovanni Boccherini. This modest success launched a thirty-four-year operatic career. Armida premiered on the 2nd of June 1771 and became his first great success in serious opera. The work followed in Gluck's footsteps and embraced his reform of serious opera beginning with Orfeo ed Euridice. La Fiera di Venezia premiered on the 29th of January 1772 and featured characters singing in three languages. It included an innovative scene combining on-stage dances with singing from soloists and chorus. Les Danaïdes received great acclaim in Paris and kept the opera on stage for over forty years. Tarare proved to be another major success and was translated into Italian as Axur re d'Ormus. This version reached South America with the exiled royal house of Portugal in 1824. Salieri wrote no new operas after 1804 when he voluntarily withdrew from the stage.
Salieri served as director of the Italian opera from 1774 until 1792. He held this post while also becoming Austrian imperial Kapellmeister from 1788 to 1824. As Kapellmeister he conducted music at the court chapel and attached school until shortly before his death. He was officially retired from the post in 1824. Even as his own works dropped from performance, he remained one of the most important teachers of his generation. His pupils included Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Schubert, and Franz Liszt. Antonio Casimir Cartellieri and Johann Nepomuk Hummel were among his other famous students. All but the wealthiest of his pupils received lessons for free. This reflected the kindness Gassmann had shown Salieri as a penniless orphan. Salieri continued to conduct publicly including the performance on the 18th of March 1808 of Haydn's The Creation during which Haydn collapsed. He also premiered several works by Beethoven including the first and second piano concertos.
In the 1780s Mozart wrote letters suggesting that Italians led by Salieri put obstacles in his way. Mozart told his father in December 1781 that the only person who counted in the Emperor's eyes was Salieri. Letters from May 1783 mention a trick of Salieri's regarding text commissions. Decades after Mozart died in 1791 at age thirty-five rumors began circulating that Salieri had poisoned him. Medical evidence shows symptoms displayed by Mozart's illness did not indicate poisoning. The Norton/Grove Concise Encyclopedia of Music states flatly that he was not poisoned. It is likely they were mutually respectful peers. Salieri was greatly affected by the widespread public belief that he contributed to Mozart's death. He vehemently denied this accusation and it contributed to his nervous breakdowns in later life. In his last surviving letter dated the 14th of October 1791 Mozart spoke enthusiastically about Salieri attending his opera The Magic Flute. He noted that every piece elicited a Bravo or Bello out of the older composer.
Salieri's music slowly disappeared from the repertoire between 1800 and 1868. It was rarely heard after that period until the revival of his fame in the late twentieth century. This decline occurred as political changes threatened Austria and musical tastes shifted toward eccentricity. Ignaz von Mosel described how radical changes in musical taste led to Salieri's withdrawal from operatic work. From circa 1800 Salieri realized that musical taste was changing in a manner completely contrary to his own times. Eccentricity and confusion of genres replaced reasoned and masterful simplicity. His final opera The Negroes performed in 1804 was a complete failure. He retired from the stage recognizing that artistic styles had changed. He felt he no longer had the creative capacity to adapt or the emotional desire to continue. Salieri died in Vienna on the 7th of May 1825 aged seventy-four.
Peter Shaffer wrote the play Amadeus in 1979 which gave Salieri dramatic exposure. The film version directed by Miloš Forman arrived in 1984 and won an Academy Award for Best Actor for F. Murray Abraham. Abraham depicted Salieri as a Machiavellian character who used connections to keep Mozart as an underdog. Alexander Pushkin wrote his little tragedy Mozart and Salieri in 1831 as a study of envy. This work inspired Shaffer's later play. Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov adapted Pushkin's text into an opera of the same name in 1898. Modern performances have returned some of Salieri's operas to the stage since 2000. A Salieri Opera Festival now takes place annually in Legnago where a theatre has been renamed in his honor. Cecilia Bartoli released The Salieri Album in 2003 containing thirteen arias from his operas. Diana Damrau released a CD with seven coloratura arias in 2008. Complete recordings of Axur Re d'Ormus Falstaff Les Danaïdes and La Locandiera have been issued or re-issued.
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Common questions
When and where was Antonio Salieri born?
Antonio Salieri was born on the 18th of August 1750 in the town of Legnago, located south of Verona within the Republic of Venice.
Who were the teachers of Antonio Salieri during his early education?
His early musical education began at home under the guidance of his older brother Francesco Salieri. He also received lessons from Giuseppe Simoni who served as the organist for the local cathedral and had been a pupil of Padre Giovanni Battista Martini.
What major operas did Antonio Salieri compose between 1770 and 1804?
Salieri composed over thirty-five original dramas including Le donne letterate which premiered in 1770 and Armida which became his first great success in serious opera. His other notable works include La Fiera di Venezia Les Danaïdes Tarare and The Negroes performed in 1804.
Did Antonio Salieri poison Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart according to historical evidence?
Medical evidence shows symptoms displayed by Mozart's illness did not indicate poisoning and the Norton/Grove Concise Encyclopedia of Music states flatly that he was not poisoned. It is likely they were mutually respectful peers despite rumors circulating decades after Mozart died in 1791.
When did Antonio Salieri die and how old was he at the time of death?
Antonio Salieri died in Vienna on the 7th of May 1825 aged seventy-four.