Salieri: Cublai, Gran Kan De' Tartari

Salieri's Cublai, gran kan de' Tartari (1788) displays all it's heroic-comic loquaciousness, for Giambattista Casti's libretto barely conceals it's piquant parody of the European monarchical courts behind it's plot set in Cathay. The figure of the Great Khan, in particular, is a droll evocation of Peter the Great. Censored even before it's premiere, the work waited to be resurrected in it's original version with the help of Les Talens Lyriques and their conductor Christophe Rousset, ardent defenders of Salieri's music.