When a masterful composer gets inspired by a literary genius the result is Mozart and Salieri – a one-act opera composed by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov in 1897 to a Russian libretto taken almost verbatim from Alexander Pushkin’s 1830 verse drama of the same name. The story was widely popularized by Miloš Forman’s 1984 film Amadeus.

The story follows the apocryphal legend that Antonio Salieri poisoned Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart out of jealousy over the latter’s music. Rimsky-Korsakov incorporated quotations from Mozart’s Requiem and Don Giovanni into the score.

The truthfulness of this thrilling legend may be dubious, but the excitement of the drama of extreme artistic jealousy remains powerfully attractive, especially when the opera is sung by two fantastic voices who are also brilliant actors:

Brian Skoog, tenor, as Mozart

Matthew Mueller, bass, as Salieri

Both the composer and the librettist were Russian, so this one-act opera was originally composed to a Russian text. The Cleveland Opera will present it in English, complete with staging, costumes and instrumental accompaniment.