Antonio Salieri

Antonio Salieri was an Italian composer and teacher of the classical period, born in Legnago in the Republic of Venice, who spent his adult career as a subject of the Habsburg monarchy in Vienna. Over more than four decades as court composer and Kapellmeister he wrote more than forty operas and taught composition to students including Beethoven, Schubert and Liszt. His reputation was long distorted by an unfounded legend that he poisoned Mozart out of jealousy, a story popularized by Pushkin and later by the play and film Amadeus but not credited by historians.