Hidden treasures Antonio Salieri Falstaff ossia le tre burle (1799) Selected highlights

Painting: Behind the scene by Carl Spitzweg. History: It is not known whether one of the early German versions of The merry wives by Ritter (1794) and von Dittersdorf (1796) were known to Salieri, though the original play itself had been performed in Vienna on numerous occasions. Salieri turned for what was his thirtyseventh opera to Carlo Defranceschi, a littleknown figure active in Prague and Vienna, his skillful Italian adaptation, however proves that he was wellchosen for the task, and the du