IMPULSE in the Imperial Court Chapel

Playwrights Thomas Perle, Lisa Wentz and Miriam Unterthiner present new perspectives on Antonio Salieri with three short dramas. The performances will be presented with students from the Max Reinhardt Seminar on 21 May, 4 June and 11 June in the Vienna Imperial Court Chapel and will be musically accompanied by organists from the Wiener Hofmusikkapelle. Treat yourself to a lunch break and let yourself be whisked away into the special atmosphere of the Vienna Imperial Court Chapel for half an hour of music and short dramas.

With world premieres by Lisa Wentz, Thomas Perle and Miriam Unterthiner

A cooperation with the Max Reinhardt Seminar as part of SALIERI 2025
Directed by: Lukas Schöppl, Jakob Leanda Wernisch

Students of the Max Reinhardt Seminar of the mdw - University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna

Admission free! No registration required.
Duration: 12:00-12:30 pm; Admission: 11:30 am
 

Presentation of one commissioned work each:

• 21 May 2025, 12:00-12:30 pm:
  Dramolet by Lisa Wentz, directed by Jakob Leanda Wernisch
  Music: Jeremy Joseph (organ)
• 04 June 2025, 12:00-12:30 pm:
  Dramolet by Thomas Perle, directed by Lukas Schöppl
  Music: Elke Eckerstorfer (organ)
• 11 June 2025, 12:00-12:30 pm:
  Dramolet by Miriam Unterthiner, directed by Lukas Schöppl
  Music: Robert Kovács (organ)

Vienna 1825: Shortly before his death, Salieri firmly rejects the rumour that he had murdered Mozart. He implores his former pupil, the composer Ignaz Moscheles, to inform the world that the rumour of a murder by poison is nothing but malice. But immediately after Salieri's death, the legend begins to form. Alexander Pushkin writes the drama MOZART I SALIERI, later set to music by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and the British playwright Peter Shaffer finally takes the tradition to the extreme: Salieri as a talentless, envy-ridden adversary of Mozart's genius. Miloš Forman's film AMADEUS, based on Shaffer's play of the same name, begins with the words of Salieri: ‘Mozart, forgive your assassin. I confess, I killed you’. These works are fiction, but they still have a lasting impact on our view of Antonio Salieri today.

Salieri's life was characterised by the early death of his parents. Growing up in Legnago, he came to the imperial court in Vienna at the age of sixteen and established his success there. He was appointed court conductor and finally director of the court chapel. The rise of nationalism was the background to the anti-Salieri sentiment of the 1820s. The myth of the ‘evil Italian’ who plotted against the ‘German genius’ Mozart was founded, Salieri's outstanding reputation was damaged and his repertoire pushed into the background.

This event is part of SALIERI 2025!