# Best Salieri Opera



## obwan (Oct 24, 2011)

Well no mentioned him in the rarest operas thread that aren't entirely trash and I think he deserves his own thread.

He wrote 40 operas according to the movie amadeus, which even presented 3 clips of his operas. (They may have all been from Axur re d'Ormus I don't know). Judging from those and the few youtube clips there are I'd say they are pretty damn good, if not masterpieces on par with mozart's own. but i have yet to see a full opera.

What are his best? Where in the world are they being performed?


----------



## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Salieri little-known fact: He wrote the first set of standalone orchestral variations (without solo instrument). Brahms was a distant also-ran.


----------



## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

About a year or so ago, I borrowed the DVD of Salieri's opera Falstaff , basically the same story as Verdi but with some differences, on library interloan . By golly, I enjoyed it very much ! It's a first-rate Italian 
opera buffa . No one could consider Salieri a compositional loser after seeing his Falstaff .
It features resident Met basso buffo John Del Carlo as Falstaff, and is conducted by Arnold Ostman, who has been a regular at the Drottningholm festival in Sweden, and who has done some excellent recordings of Mozart operas there on period instruments . The performance is from the Schwetzingen festival in Germany .
By all means get this if you can .
There's also a Chandos CD of this opera conducted by Alberto Veronesi , but I haven't heard it .


----------



## dionisio (Jul 30, 2012)

I've only heard Europa Riconisciutta, so i cannot make any comparison. Sorry, mate!


----------



## Hesoos (Jun 9, 2012)

In my opinion Falstaff by Salieri is better than Verdi's (and I'm a Verdi fan!)... and the Salieri Falstaff is more funny, it really makes laugh!
This opera and "Prima la musica e poi le parole" are the only operas by Salieri I've listened to and Falstaff is really a masterpiece. "Prima la musica e poi le parole" is not so great... I'm keen to try more Salieri's operas!


----------



## gellio (Nov 7, 2013)

Hesoos said:


> In my opinion Falstaff by Salieri is better than Verdi's (and I'm a Verdi fan!)... and the Salieri Falstaff is more funny, it really makes laugh!
> This opera and "Prima la musica e poi le parole" are the only operas by Salieri I've listened to and Falstaff is really a masterpiece. "Prima la musica e poi le parole" is not so great... I'm keen to try more Salieri's operas!


I love Saleri's Falstaff. The Tamas Pal recording is magnificent and it's on iTunes.


----------



## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

I've heard Salieri's Falstaff and found it well-written and enjoyable. No competition for the genius of Verdi's, but that's no disgrace.

Cecilia Bartoli made an album of Salieri arias, and some of them are quite beautiful.


----------



## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Salieri. Wasn't he the guy who hung around with Mozart?


----------



## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

I've only heard _Les Danaïdes_, but it's magnificent - an intense, Gluckian opera of 50 murderous brides for 50 brothers, with a final scene in hell.






It's also the opera that inspired Berlioz to drop medicine and become a composer.



> The pomp and brilliance of the spectacle, the massive sonority of orchestra and chorus, the inspired pathos of Mme Branchu and her extraordinary voice, the rugged grandeur of Dérivis, Hypermnestre's aria, in which I discerned, imitated by Salieri, all the characteristics of Gluck's style as I had conceived it from the pieces from his Orphée in my father's library, and finally the tremendous bacchanal and the sad voluptuous ballet music that Spontini added to his old compatriot's score, disturbed and exalted me to an attempt that I will not attempt to describe […] I hardly slept that night, and the next day's anatomy lesson suffered accordingly. I sang Danaus' aria "The kindly strokes of destiny" as I sawed my subject's skull; and when Robert, impatient at my humming "Descend into the sea-nymph's breast" when I should have been consulting Bichat's chapter on nerve-tissue, exclaimed, "Oh come on, we're not getting anywhere, in three days our subject will have gone bad - eighteen francs down the drain; you really must be sensible!", I replied with the hymn to Nemesis, "Goddess insatiable for blood", and the scalpel fell from his hand.


----------



## Artran (Sep 16, 2016)

I also highly recommend Falstaff. It's much more Shakespearean than Verdi's version (and better). It's also less cruel.


----------



## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

Meyerbeer Smith said:


> I've only heard _Les Danaïdes_, but it's magnificent - an intense, Gluckian opera of 50 murderous brides for 50 brothers, *with a final scene in hell*. It's also the opera that inspired Berlioz to drop medicine and become a composer.


Written in 1784, there isn't anything like Mozart's Scena Ultima concluding it. There is also ample use of recitativo accompagnato juxtaposed with dramatic choruses within the numbers, like Gluck's reformed operas.
Berlioz on the other hand called Handel "a tub of pork and beer". I'm not saying Handel is, but it's worth noting how famous composers of the past differed in views. (eg. Schubert said he wanted to be like Haydn (M), not Mozart)
Btw, in Salieri, interestingly, there's also "The School of Jealousy" (1778), a Da Ponte opera of theme similar to Mozart's "School for Lovers".


----------



## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

hammeredklavier said:


> Written in 1784, there isn't anything like Mozart's Scena Ultima concluding it. There is also ample use of recitativo accompagnato juxtaposed with dramatic choruses within the numbers, like Gluck's reformed operas.
> Berlioz on the other hand called Handel "a tub of pork and beer". I'm not saying Handel is, but it's worth noting how famous composers of the past differed in views. (eg. Schubert said he wanted to be like Haydn (M), not Mozart)
> Btw, in Salieri, interestingly, there's also "The School of Jealousy" (1778), a Da Ponte opera of theme similar to Mozart's "School for Lovers".


_La scuola de' gelosi _is rather good; I reviewed it on my blog: 152. La scuola de’ gelosi (Salieri) (That was my first Salieri review, so has an overview of the composer.)

The two best Salieri operas I've heard are
_Les Danaïdes (_review here_: _56. Les Danaïdes (Salieri) – REVISED)_ 
Tarare_ - a political black comedy written by Beaumarchais, and through-composed 60 years before Wagner (review here: 165. Tarare (Salieri))

Otherwise:
_Europa riconosciuta_, the first opera performed at La Scala, is quite advanced - it's closer to Naples-era Rossini than to contemporary opera seria (review here: 154. Europa riconosciuta (Salieri))
_Les Horaces _was a flop, but has much to commend it - it's taut, austere, and has at least one earworm melody (review here: 164. Les Horaces (Salieri))
_Armida _(yet another opera about the sorceress!) is pleasant but minor (review here: 206. Armida (Salieri))

_La Grotta di Trofonio_ has some wonderful music, but I haven't found an English or French translation of the librettto.


----------



## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

Meyerbeer Smith said:


> _La Grotta di Trofonio_


", first performed in Vienna in 1785, has certain similarities to Cosi Fan Tutte, which was premiered five years later. Both operas deal with the sexual uncertainties of two sisters when faced with lovers who are in some sense transformed - in Salieri's case by the magician Trofonio, in whose eponymous grotto the two men magically exchange personalities."


----------

