Italian classical composer, conductor, and teacher, Antonio Salieri was monumental in the development of the 18th-century opera. The cosmopolitan composer received training from Florian Leopold Gassmann and Christoph Willibald Gluck and went on to write operas in three languages. It made him a dominant figure in Parisian opera and a powerful influence on the Viennese musical world. Among his pupils were some of the most famous composers including Franz Liszt, Franz Schubert, and Ludwig van Beethoven. He wrote significant instrumental, sacred, and vocal compositions out of which Tarare (1787), a masterpiece was considered his finest achievement. He died in Vienna on May 7, 1825.
