Salieri’s Tarare / Axur and Heinrich Wilhelm Haugwitz’s Patriotic Opera Museum

Abstract

This study examines the German-language adaptations of Antonio Salieri’s 1788 Italian opera Axur (based on the 1787 French Tarare ) created by Moravian count Heinrich Wilhelm Haugwitz (1770–1842). Unlike earlier aristocratic patrons who commissioned new works, Haugwitz pursued revivals of historical operas, influenced by patriotic initiatives at the Vienna Court Theatre, aimed at constructing a German-language musical canon. His private theatre in Namiest became a centre for performances of Gluck, Handel, Naumann and Salieri, reflecting shifting ideas about fidelity and the emerging ‘work-concept’. Between 1810 and 1832, Haugwitz produced three distinct adaptations of Axur , each balancing respect for Salieri with ideological concerns and practical constraints. These versions reveal tensions between historicist ideals and political sensitivities, including efforts to neutralise socially critical elements in Beaumarchais’s and Da Ponte’s original librettos. Ultimately, Haugwitz’s work illuminates canon formation as a complex, non-linear process and underscores Salieri’s former prominence in shaping Austrian cultural identity.