Did Salieri Suffer from Bad Press?
Milós Forman’s 1984 screen adaptation of Peter Shaffer’s play Amadeus may have done Mozart's contemporary a disservice.
Salieri may have wanted to write inspired music, but he had no talent. Or did he?
Everyone knows that Salieri was the respectable musician with no talent while Mozart was the gifted (but perhaps undeserving) composer. Indeed, Mozart's overpowering genius eclipses whatever skill his contemporary may have boasted.
Yet Milós Forman's 1984 screen adaptation of Peter Shaffer's play Amadeus, upon which most of the public perception of Mozart and Salieri's relationship is based, was meant to be a retelling of the Biblical story of Esau and Jacob, and not a musicological analysis of the artistic merit of the two composers.
In order to counteract the bad press this 18th century composer has received, mezzosoprano Celicia Bartoli released a unique album focused entirely on Salieri's works, self-descriptively titled The Salieri Album.
The album contains selections from several of Salieri's operas. In addition to her talented performance on the album itself, Bartoli also delves into the historical archives to present biographical and contextual background for each individual piece.
Going to the main Decca Classics site, following the The Salieri Album link, and clicking on the "Listen and Learn" link yields many fascinating insights regarding the musical works Bartoli chose to record. Not only are aspects of each particular excerpt explained, but the notes also act as a basic introduction to the structure and history of opera in general.
For example, since "Son qual lacera tartana," the first track on the album, is a parody of operatic "sea songs," Bartoli examines how the aria imitates previous operatic composers such as Vivaldi, but with the resources of a late 18th century orchestra. Because of her combination of performance with historical study, Bartoli's project does much to bring this neglected composer back to the public eye.
