Antonio Salieri was born within the Republic of Venice, in the town of Legnago. His adult musical career – as teacher, conductor, and composer – occurred within and as a subject of the Hapsburg monarchy, and largely in its capital, Vienna. The pupils whom he tutored there included Ludwig van Bee... More informationthoven and Franz Schubert. Salieri collaborated with Christoph Willibald Gluck on a French opera, Les Danaïde, which was first performed at the Paris Opera in April 1784. Gluck was an old man, and the fact of this collaboration shows that Salieri – the younger by 36 years – was held in high regard at this time. One musicologist, Edward Dent, has described the opera that resulted from this collaboration as possessing “a certain Italian elegance of outline which is Salieri’s [and] moments of intense dramatic effect and power.” Salieri’s renown in the 21st century is largely tied to a sentimental idea of his rivalry with and jealousy of Mozart, an idea at the heart of a Rimsky-Korsakov opera, a Peter Shaffer play, and a Hollywood movie. Less information