A Salieri Vindication!

Due to his false portrayal in the movie “Amadeus,” Antonio Salieri is considered a mediocre composer and a malevolent, envious and petty man. Truth be told he actually achieved more fame in his day than Mozart and with regard to his ability as a composer, Cecilia Bartoli has set the record straight with “The Salieri Album,” a collection of Salieri arias.

Antonio Salieri composed his music during a time of dramatic change in opera. He witnessed the reformation of the opera style by composers such as Christoph Gluck who believed that Italian, French and Handelian opera was full of excess and a betrayal of opera’s true meaning–why it was created in the fist place. Gluck thought opera had become so extravagant, with excessive ornamentation by vocalists and overtures unrelated to the opera’s story, that it overwhelmed the drama of the opera itself. Of Antonio Salieri, Gluck spoke of him as his only true heir.

Salieri’s operas demonstrate the Gluckian ideal of dramatic truth and this is perhaps the reason why he is so misunderstood today. But listen to “The Salieri Album” and you’ll hear truth. Cecelia Bartoli, the beautiful mezzo-soprano, is absolutely wonderful. Her rich vocal tones and thrilling vibrato are breathtaking. My favorite piece is “Vieni a me sull’ali d’oro (Come to me on golden wings),” where Bartoli sings the expressive and noble minuet Salieri originally wrote for castrato Giuseppe Millico in “Armida.”

I doubt this will be as big a seller as Bartoli’s “Opera Proibita” or her Mozart and Vivaldi recordings, and that is unfortunate. “The Salieri Album” has certainly earned a place at the top of my list of favorite opera recordings!