Best-known as Mozart's envious nemesis, Antonio Salieri was actually among the leading opera composers of his age. Research in Vienna and a close study of his scores reveal him to have been a prolific, versatile and adventurous composer for the stage. Showing the rich musical and personal history ignored by the Salieri's stereotyped image, this study seeks to restore his musical reputation, and identifies certain orchestration, melodic style and form as distinctly "Salierian"; others are typical of Viennese opera in general. The book aims to bring Salieri, his operas and 18th-century Viennese theatre to life, and includes numerous excerpts from his works, most of them previously unpublished.