Mozart and Salieri, op. 48
Opera
Mozart and Salieri (Russian: Моцарт и Сальери, romanized: Motsart i Salyeri ) is a one-act opera in two scenes by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, written in 1897 to a Russian libretto taken almost verbatim from Alexander Pushkin's 1830 verse drama of the same name.
Synopsis
Time: End of the 18th century
Place: Vienna, Austria
Salieri enjoys high social position as a composer, and has dedicated himself to the service of his art. Secretly, however, he is jealous of Mozart's works because he recognizes their superior quality, especially given what he sees as the "idle" character of Mozart. Salieri invites Mozart to dinner and plans to poison him.
Mozart and Salieri are dining at an inn. Mozart is troubled by his work on his Requiem, which a stranger in black commissioned from him. Mozart recalls Salieri's collaboration with Pierre Beaumarchais and asks if it could be true that Beaumarchais once poisoned someone, for genius and criminality are surely incompatible. Salieri then surreptitiously pours poison into Mozart's drink. Mozart begins to play at the keyboard, as Salieri begins to cry. Mozart sees this, but Salieri urges Mozart to continue. Mozart begins to feel ill, and leaves. Salieri ends the opera pondering Mozart's belief that a genius could not murder: did not Michelangelo kill for his commissions at the Vatican, or were those idle rumors?
- Mozart and Saleiri: Act I, Scene 1: Mozart and Salieri op.48: Act I, Scene I: Entrance of Mozart and Dialogue of Mozart and Salieri (Mozart, Salieri)
- Mozart and Saleiri: Act I, Scene 1: Mozart and Salieri op.48: Act I, Scene I: Evocation of the Petits Riens
- Mozart and Saleiri: Act I, Scene 1: Mozart and Salieri op.48: Act I, Scene I: Mozart and Salieri's Dialogue (First Continuation) (Mozart, Salieri)
- Mozart and Saleiri: Act I, Scene 1: Mozart and Salieri op.48: Act I, Scene I: Second Monologue of Salieri (Salieri)
- Mozart and Saleiri: Act I, Scene 2: Mozart and Salieri op.48: Act I, Scene II: Continuation of Dialogue and Finale (Mozart, Salieri)
- Mozart and Saleiri: Act I, Scene 2: Mozart and Salieri op.48: Act I, Scene II: Evocation of Mozart's Requiem (Mozart, Salieri)
- Mozart and Saleiri: Act I, Scene 2: Mozart and Salieri op.48: Act I, Scene II: Introduction and Dialogue (Salieri, Mozart)
- Mozart and Saleiri: Act I, Scene 2: Mozart and Salieri op.48: Act I, Scene II: Mozart and Salieri's Dialogue (Second Continuation) (Salieri, Mozart)
Synopsis from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.