ABSTRACT
The card catalogue of the Musiksammlung in the Osterreichische Nationalbibliothek in Vienna documents the library's extensive collection of Salieri's music manuscripts, including many autographs. Among the many subjects upon whom the Novellos' conversations with the widow Mozart touched was Antonio Salieri's attitude towards Mozart, which prompted Constanze to speak of Cost fan tutte. There are good reasons for supposing that Da Ponte might have intended the libretto of La scola degli amanti for Salieri rather than for Mozart. Salieri's decision to leave La scola degli amanti incomplete is uncharacteristic. When he broke off the composition of L'isola capricciosa in 1779 because of the death of the impresario who had commissioned it, the opera lay unfinished until 1793, when Salieri completed it; the work was presented two years later as II mondo alla rovesciai. While both Salieri's and Mozart's melodies for 'La mia Dorabella' initially feature dotted rhythms, Salieri drops his after Ferrando's first phrase.
