Prima la musica, poi le parole
Pitted against Mozart’s Impresario, Salieri’s opera, with updated dialogue, is less about the priority of music over lyrics but rather which of the Primadonne will get the meatier part: the count’s, read sponsor’s, lover, or the ambitious young squeeze of the librettist? In an audition setting it’s the pianist who suffers the most. And – the supratitles added pithy comments, sometimes riffing on the boring lyrics, hoping some aria would FINALLY PLEASE BE OVER!!! But all ends well, the dream of the perfect rendition of music and drama unites all forces.