Excavations of the operas of Antonio Salieri have revealed many worthwhile works and have often helped reverse the image of the composer as the murderous hack portrayed in the line of dramatic works running from Pushkin ( Mozart and Salieri ) through to playwright Peter Shaffer and film director Milos Forman. Much more still awaits the adventurous director (did you know that Salieri wrote an opera set in the Caribbean and featuring an interracial marriage, with a text by the librettist of Beethoven's Fidelio?). The present ...
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Excavations of the operas of Antonio Salieri have revealed many worthwhile works and have often helped reverse the image of the composer as the murderous hack portrayed in the line of dramatic works running from Pushkin ( Mozart and Salieri ) through to playwright Peter Shaffer and film director Milos Forman. Much more still awaits the adventurous director (did you know that Salieri wrote an opera set in the Caribbean and featuring an interracial marriage, with a text by the librettist of Beethoven's Fidelio?). The present work, composed in 1771 when Salieri was just 21 and here receiving its premiere on recordings, is ready for prime time, and it's a good deal more progressive than anything Mozart would write for some years. Salieri was a student of Gluck, and Armida, a hit at the time, follows in his footsteps with naturally unfolding action, melodic rather than spectacular arias, individual numbers switching from chorus to recitative to solo melody according to what is going on at the time, and...
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