Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Amadeus: Mozart vs. Salieri

Many accounts of Mozarts life have been created, and no one trul knows what was true and what is false. In the film Amadeus, Mozarts life is portrayed in the 18th century, in Vienna, Italy. This much is true. The film portrays a composer named Antonio Salieri, whom in the movie plots to kill Mozart. Before Salieri meets Mozart, he highly respects Mozart and his music, however, when he meets Mozart in person, he is highly disappointed to find that Mozart's personality does not match the grace and beauty of his music. Salieri cannot believe that God would bestow such a gift upon such a imbecile, and he renounces God completely and vows to do everything he can to destroy Mozart. Throughout the movie, Salieri pretends to befriend Mozart and help him while he tries to tear him down from Behind. The film ends with Salieri attempting suicide to be remembered and leaving a false confession that he murdered Mozart with Arsenic. However this fails, and his confession is disbelieved, which leaves him to live out the remainder of his life in Mediocrity. In reality, evidence suggests that ther may have been antipathy between the two men, but the idea that Salieri was the cause of Mozart's death was not given credence. Some documents show that there may have been rivalry between the two, but a relationship marked by mutual respect existed. In fact, Salieri taught music to Mozart's son, Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart. Some reject the romantic notion that Mozart wrote out perfect manuscripts of the works already completed in his head. Personally, I think that Mozart was a prodigy that comes along once in a millenia,if that, and was genuinely that kind of musician that no one will ever completely understand.

1 comment:

  1. Good post Silas. Can you edit your post to reflect that Vienna is in Austria, not Italy. (You may be thinking of Venice, Italy).

    Thanks!

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