I just read Amadeus, the play that inspired the 1984 film, and enjoyed it!

I haven’t seen the movie, and didn’t even realize the book was a play when I picked it up. I thought it was charming in it’s contrast between Mozart and Salieri, talent and skill, youth and wisdom, immaturity and malintent. I wrote my own brief summary of the play (spoilers below), but would love to hear other’s thoughts on the play, whether they digested it through text or from viewing it on stage (but not the film adaptation).

\- Begin summary –

Mozart is an eternally childish prodigy, and the instrument in God’s hand relentlessly slapping Salieri in the face…

>!Salieri’s life was built on devotion to God, service, and worship through a mastery of music; Mozart was a most crude and offensive animal. But Mozart’s prodigious reputation preceded him, so a brief exposure to his obscenities caused Salieri’s foundations to crumble in an instant. However, true genius can be fully appreciated only when observed through the trained eyes of a master. A later glimpse of the brilliance inhabiting the brash Trazom’s mind ground the remains of Salieri’s life ruins wholly into dust. To Salieri, the message was a clear and final confirmation of God’s indifference, if not, cruelty against him; and Salieri rebelled.

Outwardly, he supported Mozart, and eventually became his closest friend. However, Salieri was fluent in the tides of the courts, and he easily manipulated Mozart into betraying all his affiliations, and prevented Mozart’s success beyond poverty. Sweet poison – every gesture Salieri made, Mozart swallowed eagerly and with gratitude. Salieri’s secret motivations became manifest in a gray mask that was bore by the inexplicable vortex of misfortune tormenting Mozart. He spiraled into illness, isolation, and psychosis, and seeing his dear friend’s face behind the mask was too much for Mozart to bear and he succumbed to death.

When Mozart was alive, Salieri’s success and ubiquity as a composer was threatened, but never surpassed. Posthumously, Mozart’s shining works began to become visible to the multitudes, undermining Salieri’s desire for eternal fame. In a desperate maneuver, like in the throws of death, Salieri tried to confess to his murder of the greatest composer of all time. His guilty admissions were dismissed as insanity and he faded into obscurity as the brilliance of Mozart became ever brighter through the ages.!<

by calmonsa