Music history has not been kind to Antonio Salieri. To this day, he is vilified as Mozart’s rival, envious rival or even murderer – a perception fuelled not least by Miloš Forman’s film »Amadeus«, which portrays Salieri as a ruthless, ambitious man and a mediocre composer. Yet all this has little to do with reality.
The Italian composer enjoyed great esteem, particularly during his lifetime, and a joint composition by Mozart and Salieri bears witness more to a friendly, collegial relationship between the two than to open hostility. So it is about time for a rehabilitation!
This is now being achieved by the conductor and early music specialist René Jacobs, who is bringing Salieri’s original opera »Falstaff ossia Le tre burle« – which oscillates between the light-hearted and the serious – to the Great Hall. Yes, that very Falstaff for whom William Shakespeare once provided the template with »The Merry Wives of Windsor« and who became immortalised above all through Giuseppe Verdi’s opera. Jacobs thus continues his successful series of concertante operas at the Elbphilharmonie, which has so far included an early version of Beethoven’s »Fidelio« and Bizet’s »Carmen«. Once again, he can rely on the Belgian B’Rock Orchestra and a lively vocal ensemble led by the Croatian bass-baritone Krešimir Stražanac.
PERFORMERS
B’Rock Orchestra vzw chamber ensemble
Krešimir Stražanac bass
Anett Fritsch soprano
Grégoire Mour tenor
Luigi de Donato bass
Sophie Harmsen mezzo-soprano
Arttu Kataja bass
Sunhae Im soprano
René Jacobs director
PROGRAM
Antonio Salieri
Falstaff ossia Le tre burle / Dramma giocoso in zwei Akten
Konzertante Aufführung in italienischer Sprache mit deutschen Übertiteln
The concert takes place with an interval.
