On this day in 1825, composer, conductor, and teacher Antonio Salieri died in Vienna at the age of 74. Born on 18 August 1750 in Legnago, south of Verona, in the Republic of Venice, and spent his adult life and career as a subject of the Habsburg Monarchy.
Salieri was a pivotal figure in the development of late 18th-century opera. As a student of Florian Leopold Gassmann, and a protégé of Christoph Willibald Gluck, Salieri was a cosmopolitan composer who wrote operas in three languages. Salieri helped to develop and shape many of the features of operatic compositional vocabulary, and his music was an important influence on contemporary composers.
Appointed the director of the Italian opera by the Habsburg court, a post he held from 1774 until 1792, Salieri dominated Italian-language opera in Vienna. During his career he also spent time writing works for opera houses in Paris, Rome, and Venice, and his dramatic works were performed throughout Europe during his lifetime. As the Austrian imperial Kapellmeister from 1788 to 1824, he was responsible for music at the court chapel and attached school. Even as his works dropped from performance, and he wrote no new operas after 1804, he still remained one of the most important and sought-after teachers of his generation, and his influence was felt in every aspect of Vienna’s musical life. Franz Liszt, Franz Schubert, Ludwig van Beethoven, Johann Nepomuk Hummel and Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart were among the most famous of his pupils.
Salieri’s music slowly disappeared from the repertoire between 1800 and 1868 and was rarely heard after that period until the revival of his fame in the late 20th century. This revival was due to the dramatic and highly fictionalized depiction of Salieri in Peter Shaffer’s play Amadeus (1979) and its 1984 film version. The death of Mozart in 1791 at the age of 35 was followed by rumors that he and Salieri had been bitter rivals, and that Salieri had poisoned the younger composer, yet it is likely that they were, at least, mutually respectful peers.
The Final Footprint
Salieri was committed to medical care and likely suffered dementia for the last year and a half of his life. He was buried in the Matzleinsdorfer Friedhof on 10 May. At his memorial service on 22 June 1825 his own Requiem in C minor – composed in 1804 – was performed for the first time. His remains were later transferred to the Zentralfriedhof in Vienna. His monument is adorned by a poem written by Joseph Weigl, one of his pupils:
Ruh sanft! Vom Staub entblößt,
Wird Dir die Ewigkeit erblühen.
Ruh sanft! In ew’gen Harmonien
Ist nun Dein Geist gelöst.
Er sprach sich aus in zaubervollen Tönen,
Jetzt schwebt er hin zum unvergänglich Schönen.
Rest in peace! Uncovered by dust
Eternity shall bloom for you.
Rest in peace! In eternal harmonies
Your spirit now is set free.
It expressed itself in enchanting notes,
Now it is floating to everlasting beauty.
Other notable final footprints at Zentralfriedhof include; Ludwig van Beethoven, Johannes Brahms, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (cenotaph), Franz Schubert, Johann Strauss I, and Johann Strauss II.
On this day in 2002 Thoroughbred race horse who won the United States Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing in 1977, Seattle Slew died in his sleep at Hill ‘N’ Dale Farm, Lexington, Kentucky, 25 years to the day he won the Kentucky Derby, at the age of 28. Foaled on 15 February 1974 at Ben Castleman’s White Horse Acres Farm near Lexington, Kentucky. A descendant of the great sire Nearco through his son, Nasrullah, Seattle Slew was sired by Bold Reasoning and out of My Charmer. He was named Champion 2-Year-Old of 1976. The big nearly-black colt swept through the Triple Crown races and was named Champion 3-Year-Old of 1977 and Eclipse Award American Horse of the Year. Seattle Slew is the only Belmont Stakes winner to sire a Belmont Stakes winner, A.P. Indy (whose damsire was the great Secretariat), who in turn sired Belmont Stakes winner, Rags to Riches.
The Final Footprint – Seattle Slew was buried whole, the highest honor for a race horse, in the courtyard at Hill ‘N’ Dale Farm with his favorite blanket and a bag of peppermints which he liked to eat. Three Chimneys Farm, Midway, Kentucky erected a statue of Seattle Slew near the stallion barn in his honor.
#RIP #OTD in 2011 professional golfer, a World No. 1, 3x Open Champion, 2x Masters Champion, Seve Ballesteros died from brain cancer in Pedreña, Cantabria, Spain, aged 54. cremated remains interred at his estate in Pedreña
#RIP #OTD in 2023 professional rodeo cowboy, 6x all-around world champion, 2x bull riding world champion in the Rodeo Cowboys Association circuit at the National Finals Rodeo, Larry Mahan died on May 7, 2023, at age 79 at his home in Valley View, Texas aged 79
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