Amadeus When Antonio Salieri Is

Amadeus When Antonio Salieri is first seen in the film Amadeus, he is being wheeled through a filthy and dreary asylum where he is evidently spending his aging years. He is screaming out to the long dead Mozart to be forgiven for his part in his death, confessing that he was Mozart's murder. He seems alternately proud and ashamed by his sin. He dares the listener to believe him, to hear his tale. This outburst immediately precedes Salieri's attempt to kill himself by slashing his own throat.

Throughout the course of the rest of the film, Salieri tells the story of how he had been acquainted with Mozart from very early in is life, when he (Salieri) was the court composer to Emperor Joseph II of Austria, and Mozart had been presented to the court as a child prodigy.

It is not until Mozart's wife comes to Salieri looking for help for her husband with piles and piles of manuscripts, evidently done in a short period of time and with very little effort on the part of Mozart, does Salieri truly realize that Mozart is more than just a "flash in the pan" but instead is a gifted musician as well as a very dangerous rival to Salieri's tenuous position as court composer.

It is at this time that Salieri first understands the extent to which his work, while fleeting popular with the court and the country, is not immortal in the way that Mozart's work is likely to be. In addition, Salieri realizes that Mozart may not even understand the gift he has, and if he does, he wastes it but spending much of his time drinking, partying with friends, and generally squandering a gift that Salieri so dearly desires but knows that in his lifetime he will never possess.

It is in this moment that Salieri clearly understands that for posterity Salieri will be only considered mediocre and Mozart to be considered a genius. To this point, Salieri turns his face away from God and begins to concoct his plot to take advantage of Mozart's anxieties and weaknesses, and instead work to bring him to an early death. Salieri is not an entirely evil character, just as Mozart is not an entirely sympathetic character.

After watching a performance of "The Magic Flute," Salieri finds that he cannot help but be overcome by his admiration of Mozart's talent, and sympathy for the fact that his genius is not automatically understood by the populace. It is Salieri who in fact rescues Mozart from theatre and returns him to his home.

It is at this point that Salieri begins his transcription of the Requiem Mass, a Mass he himself has ordered from Mozart and the effort of which he knows will eventually bring Mozart to the brink of exhaustion and possibly death. Salieri is left behind to live in a world where he will never be remembered as long and as importantly as Mozart and at the end of the movie we see him being wheeled through the asylum in which he lives, absolving all the other mediocrities such as himself.

This story has been widely panned, not for artistic reasons, but for some of the historical liberties taken. In the movie, Mozart is seen to live in poverty while being the great composer, and the "mediocre" composer is seen to live in relative wealth and comfort.

Is this to support the old saw that an artist must suffer to live, and therefore Mozart would have known nothing but suffering as an artist of such immense talent (Borowitz, 1973)? Despite this, the movie still has a loyal following and increased the public's interest in the composer, although much of the movie has no basis in historical fact.

The most fascinating element of the story, however, is just that which the screenwriters use to exploit - why is it that one who is conscientious and hardworking, such as Antonio Salieri considered to be such a mediocre talent when a lazy genius who appears to have little to no appreciation of his gifts, attains musical immortality, such as it is? Such is the capricious nature of talent. Several of the scenes bring the contrast of the two characters' personalities onto sharp contrast.

By this I am speaking of the way Mozart is able to change Salieri's welcoming music without much thought, the stunned expression upon Salieri's face when he sees the genius in the unfinished manuscripts that Mozart has given to his wife, and Mozart's ability to internalize and visually recognize the music as he dictates the Requiem to Salieri on his death bed.

These scenes show in their turn a movement from anger to amazement and jealousy to finally Salieri's growing realization that he sits in the company of a genius and he is overcome by the beauty of the music which he struggles to transcribe as Mozart ostensibly dies (Marshall, 1997).

As we see this shift in Salieri, we also see a shift in Mozart from childish little boy to musical bad boy, to eventually in the death bed scene, a genius who appears to be divinely inspired in his ability to write music. What is also at cross purposes is the depiction of Salieri as a relatively grounded man, with (until midpoint of the story) strong religious bonds and Mozart as spoiled, self-indulgent, bacchanalian; a vulgar man.

The contrast between he who would seem to be the most deserving of the genius and he to whom it is gifted is striking and gives the story much of its flavor. Some of the characterizations are based in fact.

Musicologist Erich Hertzman, a biographer of Mozart, reports that the composer may have had a photographic memory and therefore was able to write music as fast as he could put it down on paper, a testament to the fact that Constanze, the wife, presents Salieri with manuscripts that are first drafts and have no cross outs or re-writes. We do know that it would have been.