Unfairly treated in the stage play and film Amadeus, and in the previous century by Russian writer Pushkin, Antonio Salieri has popularly become known as the person who blighted Mozart’s life. In reality he was a hard-working Italian composer who served for many years as Court Kapellmeister in Vienna, and in the 1780s dominated opera in Paris. He was also to have a major influence on training musicians of the next generation, including Beethoven and Schubert. He is known to have written over forty stage works, many of them subsequently lost. The overtures show a skilled craftsman with a ready gift for creating attractive melodies.