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REQUIESCAT

For those who care... today commemorates the death of Antonio Salieri in 1825. Salieri was the court composer of Emperor Joseph, wrote 40 classic operas, and was falsely cast as the villian in the play "Amadeus". The rumor was that poor Antonio poisoned Mozart... a lie spread by Mozart's truly strange widow... and continued by the movie of the same name. To call the movie historical is to make fiction the basis of truth and give the lie to all history. Salieri was a distant friend of the volatile Mozart, and one of the young man's few professional friends. The truth is that Mozart died of typhus. A common thing in the early 19th century there in septic Vienna.

Salieri didn't have that spark of visionary genius that characterized Mozart, but he was a competent fellow, a popular mucisian of his time, and the teacher of such luminaries as Beethoven and Liszt.

Just thought you'd like to know.

Bob