Antonio Salieri

Born in Legnago in 1750, Salieri studied under Florian Leopold Gassmann and became a protégé of Gluck, writing operas in three languages for Vienna, Paris, Rome, and Venice. From 1774 to 1792 he directed Italian opera for the Habsburg court, and from 1788 to 1824 served as imperial Kapellmeister, overseeing the court chapel and training a generation that included Beethoven, Schubert, Liszt, and Hummel. He stopped writing operas after 1804, and his work faded from repertoire by 1868. After Mozart died in 1791, rumors spread that Salieri had poisoned him out of rivalry - medically disproven, but the public belief broke him, contributing to nervous breakdowns before his death in 1825. Peter Shaffer's 1979 play Amadeus and its 1984 film brought his name back, though more for the myth than the music.