Amadeus is the title of both a stage play and an Academy Award winning film written in 1979 by Peter Shaffer, both loosely based on the lives of the composers Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri. Amadeus was inspired by Mozart and Salieri, a short play by Aleksandr Pushkin (later adapted into an opera by Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov).
The title refers to a name that Mozart often used (he was baptized as Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart) as a pen name. It is a Latinization of the Greek Theophilos, which Mozart sometimes also Germanized as "Gottlieb." All three names mean "God-lover" or "Loved by God" and, aside from being a direct reference to Mozart, the title serves as an ironic reference to Salieri's relationship with God in the play and film (see the plot section, below, for more detail).
Shaffer uses English to stand in for German throughout the play and film. That is, whenever the characters are speaking in English, the audience is to understand that they are speaking vernacular German. Indeed, even operas with libretti in German, such as Die Entführung aus dem Serail (The Abduction from the Seraglio) and Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) are translated into English, so as to maintain this concept. Italian opera lyrics, on the other hand, are sung in the original to preserve their "foreign-ness" within the story.
The play, and to a much larger extent the film, make use of Mozart's music (as well as that of a few other composers, including Salieri). The film famously opens with the powerful "Allegro con brio" from Mozart's Symphony No. 25 in G Minor, and closes with Mozart's inimitable Requiem. The film's score was performed by The Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, conducted by Sir Neville Marriner.
Plot Description
In the film, however, the above does not occur. Instead, the film uses that time to focus on Mozart's relationships with his father, Leopold (whom he worships and fears), and his wife, which are rather tense and erratic, respectively. As the film moves on, Mozart learns of his father's death and composes the operatic masterpiece Don Giovanni, in part as a tribute to him. Salieri avows that it was the finest opera he had ever seen, yet he uses his influence to make sure it closes after only five performances.
Following this, Salieri hatches a plan to conscript Mozart to compose a requiem, after which Salieri will kill him and claim the composition as his own. Even better, he reasons, he will then perform "Salieri's Requiem" at Mozart's own funeral, thus demonstrating to the world the inspiration that his true and devoted friendship with Mozart had given him. Salieri dons a disguise and anonymously commissions the composition from Mozart.
Meanwhile, Mozart's friend Emanuel Schikaneder has put on a parody of Don Giovanni at a local music hall, which Mozart finds charming. It has also been a great success. Schikaneder convinces Mozart to write an opera "for the people," who will appreciate his work more than the staid aristocrats for whom he usually composes. Mozart agrees, and composes Die Zauberflöte, all the while continuing to work on his requiem. Zauberflöte is a big success, but during the initial performance, Mozart (who is conducting from the keyboard) falls ill and is taken home by Salieri. There, Salieri pushes Mozart to continue work on his requiem, despite the fact that Mozart is barely conscious.
At this point, Schikaneder shows up at Mozart's door, and faithfully gives Mozart's share of the opera's proceeds to Salieri, who shoos him away. Salieri then returns to Mozart and gives him the money, saying that it came from the man who commissioned the requiem, and that there will be more if Mozart can finish the piece hastily. Mozart therefore asks Salieri to assist him in completing the composition, as he is too sick to write. Salieri transcribes what Mozart tells to him, and the beauty of Mozart's Requiem is slowly revealed to the audience (and Salieri himself). After some time, Mozart pauses to thank Salieri for being such a good friend, admitting that he had always felt, deep down, that Salieri did not like his music. Touched in spite of himself, Salieri candidly replies: "I tell you, you are the greatest composer known to me."
The next day, Mozart is dead. He is buried in an unmarked mass grave, his Requiem still unfinished. [top]
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