Guide Note:
Peter Shaffer's play Amadeus is partly based on the composers Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri, but the play takes a large amount of poetic license and is more focused on entertainment than verifiable fact. At the beginning of the play an elderly Salieri speaks to the audience about his believe that he killed Mozart with poison and then explains his reasons.
Salieri was initially impressed by Mozart's compositions. His excitement about meeting Mozart turned to disappointment when he discovered that Mozart's behavior and personal life did not have the grace and dignity of his music. Salieri is upset that God would give the gift of the ability to compose beautiful music to someone who lived their life in opposition to Catholic teachings. Salieri renounced God and begins his plot to destroy Mozart. He pretends to be Mozart's friend while plotting against him.
After Mozart's death Salieri attempts suicide and leaves a note saying that he poisoned Mozart, but he survives and nobody believes his note.
Fast Facts:
- Written by Peter Shaffer
- First performed at the National Theatre in 1979
- Amadeus was Mozart's pen name which means "beloved of God"
- Inspired by Aleksandr Pushkin's play Mozart and Salieri
- Adapted into a 1984 film also titled Amadeus
- Premiered on Broadway in 1980
- Broadway play won five Tony Awards including best actor for Ian McKellen
- Broadway play revived in 2000
- Scholars disagree about far the play deviates from reality
- Scholars do not believe that Salieri really killed Mozart
Important Quotation:
- While my father prayed earnestly to God to protect commerce, I would offer up secretly the proudest prayer a boy could think of: Lord, make me a great composer. Let me celebrate Your glory through music and be celebrated myself. Make me famous through the world, dear God. Make me immortal. After I die, let people speak my name forever with love for what I wrote. In return, I will give You my chastity, my industry, my deepest humility, every hour of my life, Amen.
