About the work
Opera in one act (two scenes) by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov after Alexander Pushkin's 'little tragedy' Mozart and Salieri (1830), whose text the composer set almost verbatim. It premiered on 7 December 1898 at the Solodovnikov Theatre in Moscow, performed by Savva Mamontov's Private Russian Opera with Feodor Chaliapin as Salieri and sets by Mikhail Vrubel.
Plot
The celebrated composer Salieri torments himself with envy of Mozart's effortless genius, which he feels is an unjust reward set against his own disciplined life's work. Dining together at an inn, he secretly pours poison into Mozart's glass. As Mozart improvises at the keyboard, Salieri breaks into tears – yet still lets his friend die.
Cultural significance
Rimsky-Korsakov also intended the work as homage to Alexander Dargomyzhsky's The Stone Guest, another word-for-word Pushkin setting, and wove in quotations from Mozart's Don Giovanni and the Requiem. The premiere cast, with Chaliapin as Salieri, remains one of the defining interpretations of the role.