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Salieri Prima la Musica & Mozart The Impresario Ercola Theatre, Dalston, 25 August 2011 Wolfgang Amadé Mozart and Antonio Salieri produced their two one act operas in a contest held in Schönbrunn, 1786. Salieri's won; Mozart’s opera was given as a prelude before the Imperial Court Composer's offering. Prima la Musica, Poi le Parole was twice as long and a huge success. Salieri also received twice as much money for his piece. [Richard Strauss revisited that historic debate in his Capriccio.] Opera at Home wisely reversed the ordering; to our ears Mozart's music (composed after Entfuhrung, and Salieri didn't murder Mozart (pacé Rimsky-Korsakov) but unless he was deaf to Mozart's genius might have had some such thoughts, even though he'd been paid twice as much money for his piece. Opera at Home is a fully professional company (director Jose Gandia) and fields two completely different casts for this double bill, adapting their performances to a range of smaller venues. Arcola Theatre is an attractive conversion of a one-time East London factory, and its size (several hundreds in the audience) allowed for free stage movement in good acoustics - the orchestra of five, in contrast to just two for the Mozart as seen previously at Greenwich - below - gave excellent support, with no regrets that there was not a full orchestra in attendance. There were two sopranos in each show, disputing for primacy; all four were excellent singer and actors, with promising futures. The productions were suitably complex and had been rehearsed to a high level. All of them opera singers to look out for. Peter Grahame Woolf Der Schauspieldirektor (The Impresario) K. 486 at Greenwich Payhouse Iris Korfker, Susanne Heard, Randy Nichol, Merrin Lazyan, Dario Dugandzic,
Opera at Home has completed a Sundays Lunchtime season at Greenwich Playhouse, a theatrical jewel in South East London, notable for innovative work and enterprising repertoire. This Mozart, updated with spoken dialogue by Simon Callow reflecting today's financial climate in the Arts alongside that of the 18th C, was paired with Salieri (we were commiserated with for having missed First the music, then the words). The better known Mozart, with its two rival prima-donnas, was a sure fire success, well played and sung; a fine way to spend a Sunday lunchtime hour in a pub as an alternative to the more usual jazz gigs. The music was sung in the original German and the 'orchestra' was A hit, a palbable hit! Peter Grahame Woolf |
to the latter's librettist, Gottlieb Stephanie) is far superior, and the plot clearer - with contemporary resonances in Simon Callow's pointed text. 
