Antonio Salieri: Ouverture to Der Rauchfangkehrer

Antonio Salieris first comic German Singspiel, Der Rauchfangkehrer (The ChimneySweep), premiered in Viennas Burgtheatre in 1781. His second and last Singspiel (also his last opera) would be Die Neger (The Negroes), set in colonial Virginia with a text by Georg Friedrich Treitschke (one of the authors of the libretto of Beethovens Fidelio ) and premiered in Vienna in 1804. Der Rauchfangkehrer relates the story of Volpino, an Italian chimneysweep working in the rich mansion of Frau von Habicht, a