B'Rock | René Jacobs

Posterity depicted Antonio Salieri as a bitter opponent of Mozart, and some even blamed him for Mozart's death. But no, we know today that there is nothing to this legend.

And: musically mediocre, Salieri was not. His contemporaries knew and appreciated him: Gluck saw him as his successor, Beethoven valued his advice, and Schubert and Liszt were his students. The Viennese court conductor became famous for his around 40 operas, including the Shakespeare adaptation »Falstaff«. What is original about it is the combination of comic and serious traits even within a single character (Ford). And: instead of stringing together dull recitatives and sprawling arias, the Italian combines shorter declamations and small cavatinas into stage-effective scenes – boredom doesn’t stand a chance.