Salieri in Amadeus

[Alex K]

Mozart is such an insanely polished and refined composer that almost anyone writing in a similar style will seem to lack perfection in comparison. And no, Salieri is not going to become one of my favorites any time soon, possibly also because his best works are said to be his operas, and I'm not very fond of classical opera in general.
My gripe was just that the movie portrays him as rather incompetent at his craft. His operas are very good, he really knew how to write something dramatic. His purely instrumental works seem a bit uninspired and don't compensate that by being technically absolutely perfect, like Mozart's more boring works. That's just my layman's opinion, of course.

[Minimalist]

My gripe was just that the movie portrays him as rather incompetent at his craft.

The best scene of the movie... in fact, what could be considered the whole point of the movie... was where Mozart was dictating the Confutatis from the Requiem.  In every case, Salieri knows the technical aspects of musical composition but what he cannot follow is the creative spark.  Somewhat unfair to Salieri who was every bit as competent as other composers in Austria/Germany at the time, Dittersdorf, Van Hal, Benda, Stamitz, etc.  Not everyone can be #1 but there is still room for other players on the team.

[Anomalocaris]

Mozart is such an insanely polished and refined composer that almost anyone writing in a similar style will seem to lack perfection in comparison.

He, so to speak, crafts insanely perfect China for the dining room cabinet while Beethoven composes the roof of the Sistine chapel.

[abaris]

Somewhat unfair to Salieri who was every bit as competent as other composers in Austria/Germany at the time, Dittersdorf, Van Hal, Benda, Stamitz, etc.

Well, fun fact, Mozart was neither Austrian nor German. He came from a small independent theocratic domain called Salzburg, which only became part of Austria after the Congress of Vienna.

[Anomalocaris]

Another fun fact, salieri was one of beethoven's teachers.

[ApeNotKillApe]

Any perception of Salieri as incompetent is expressive of his own sense of inadequacy in the face of Mozart's innate genius, his "God given" talents provoke not just jealousy but a full existential crisis in Salieri, he witnesses Mozart's genius and sees God's contempt for him, he adores Mozart's work so that it fills him with resentment for his own perceived inadequacies. The sense that Salieri is a failure or an incompetent is subtle character development, put forth by Salieri himself, the one telling the story.

[abaris]

Any perception of Salieri as incompetent is expressive of his own sense of inadequacy in the face of Mozart's innate genius, his "God given" talents provoke not just jealousy but a full existential crisis in Salieri, he witnesses Mozart's genius and sees God's contempt for him, he adores Mozart's work so that it fills him with resentment for his own perceived inadequacies. The sense that Salieri is a failure or an incompetent is put forth by Salieri himself, the one telling the story.

Yet there's no idication of Salieri really having felt that way. Miloš Forman just built on the rumors, in the same way as From Hell built on outdated rumors surrounding the Ripper story.

[ApeNotKillApe]

Any perception of Salieri as incompetent is expressive of his own sense of inadequacy in the face of Mozart's innate genius, his "God given" talents provoke not just jealousy but a full existential crisis in Salieri, he witnesses Mozart's genius and sees God's contempt for him, he adores Mozart's work so that it fills him with resentment for his own perceived inadequacies. The sense that Salieri is a failure or an incompetent is put forth by Salieri himself, the one telling the story.

Yet there's no idication of Salieri really having felt that way. Miloš Forman just built on the rumors, in the same way as From Hell built on outdated rumors surrounding the Ripper story.

Never said he did feel that way, can't say I knew the man personally. I was commenting on a work of fiction.

[Alex K]

Any perception of Salieri as incompetent is expressive of his own sense of inadequacy in the face of Mozart's innate genius, his "God given" talents provoke not just jealousy but a full existential crisis in Salieri, he witnesses Mozart's genius and sees God's contempt for him, he adores Mozart's work so that it fills him with resentment for his own perceived inadequacies. The sense that Salieri is a failure or an incompetent is subtle character development, put forth by Salieri himself, the one telling the story.

I see what you mean, but I do not entirely agree - in the scene I linked above, Salieri apparently struggles desperately to write a simple and pretty pathetic "welcome march" which Mozart then spontaneously improvises into an Aria. This objectively portays Salieri as unrealistically incompetent.

[abaris]

This objectively portays Salieri as unrealistically incompetent.

I'm not versed enough when it comes to classical music, but is this piece actually by Salieri or just some made up tune?