Molieri: Arias by Mozart & Salieri (CD) – Adam Plachetka

Composers: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Antonio Salieri
Artists: Adam Plachetka, Czech Ensemble Baroque
Conductor: Roman Válek
Number of Discs: 1
Label: Pentatone
Release Date: September 13, 2022

Bass-baritone Adam Plachetka presents Molieri, a program of opera arias by Mozart and Salieri, together with the Czech Ensemble Baroque under the baton of Roman Válek. Thanks to fictional works such as the film Amadeus, Antonio Salieri is often scapegoated as the man who allegedly caused Mozart’s untimely death out of professional envy. Salieri’s popularity has suffered from this popular myth-making, and most of his operas have sunk into oblivion. 

Molieri brings the two composers together, focusing on bass and baritone arias from their opera buffas. Famous arias from Mozart’s Da Ponte operas are heard in a completely different light when paired to excerpts from Salieri’s Falstaff, Axur, La grotto di Trofonio and La scuola de’ gelosi. It also makes clear why Salieri enjoyed such success, as well as why great composers such as Beethoven, Schubert and Liszt all wanted to study with him. 

Given the importance of Prague for Mozart’s operatic successes, the music fits the players of Czech Ensemble Baroque like a glove, and bass-baritone Adam Plachetka possesses the optimal combination of vocal authority and agility to sing these buffo roles. Plachetka frequents the world’s most prestigious opera houses, and he is a Met regular, equally at home in dramatic and comic repertoire. The Czech Ensemble Baroque, founded by Roman Válek in 1998, is one of the most important period instrument ensembles of the Czech Republic.

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