abarisThe movie just follows through on the very old rumors of Salieri being behind Mozart's death. His reputation had been damaged already by some of his contemporaries. Of course unfounded and not doing his own artistic skill any justice.
It's been quite some time since I last watched the movie, although I have the DVD, so I don't remember, if Salieri actually kills Mozart or if he just contributes to his demise. He's portraied as the one commissioning the requiem, which he didn't do, as we know today. It was some count, wanting it for his deceased wife and most of all wanted to sell it as his own work to his admirers. Which brings me to Mozart himself, who was a big earner but an even bigger spender. He had to virtually whore himself out to keep afloat. One of the first real pop stars, I would say, given his lifestyle of womanizing, drinking and gambling. Also according to his own letters, which point to a pretty vulgar down to earth person and not some august demi god as some as his present followers make him out to be.
Okay, in the movie, Salieri does indirectly kill him, but, in the play version (I have the script), he admits at the end that he created the story as a way of keeping his name alive throughout the generations.
One moment more and I win my battle with Him. Watch and see!... All this month I've been shouting about murder. "Have mercy, Mozart! Pardon you Assassin!" ... And now my last move. A false confession - short and convincing!
(He pulls it out of his pocket) How I really did murder Mozart - with arsenic - out of envy! And how I cannot live another day under the knowledge! By tonight they'll hear out there how I died - and they'll believe it's true ! ... Let them forget me then. For the rest of time whenever men say Mozart with love, they will say Salieri with loathing!... I am going to be immortal after all! And He is powerless to prevent it.
(To God) So Signore - see now if man is mocked! (The Valet comes in with a tray, bearing a bowl of hot shaving water, soap and a razor. ....(some parts omitted owing to insufficient space)... Salieri picks up the razor, and rises. He addresses the audience most simply and directly.)
Amici cari. I was born a pair of ears and nothing else. It is only through hearing music that I know God exists. Only through writing music that I could worship.... all around me men seek liberty for mankind. I sought only salvery for myself. To be owned - ordered - exhausted by an Absolute Music. This was denied me, and with it all meaning.
(He opens the razor) Now I go to become a ghost myself. I will stand in the shadows when you come here to this earth in your turns. And when you feel the dreadful bit of your failures - and hear the taunting of unachievable, uncaring God - I will whisper my name to you : "Salieri : Patron Saint of Mediocrities!" And in the depth of your downcastness you can pray to me. And I will forgive you. Vi saluto.
(He cuts his throat, and falls backwards into the wheelchair.....)
Apparently, in the Flesh World, the rumours of a rivalry between Salieri and Mozart seem to date all the way back to 1830 with Pushkin's Mozart and Salieri. In real life, the only real evidence of any acrimony between the two was how Lorenzo da Ponte had to be shuttled to Vienna while they were reworking the Prague staging of Don Giovanni, and a remark in one of his letters about being bitter that Salieri was chosen as a singing teacher for Princess Elisabeth of Wurttemberg over him.
And, of course, it should be noted that, by the time of his death, Salieri's music had already fallen from grace, largely because, well, tastes in music had changed, due in no small part to composers like Franz Liszt, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Franz Schubert, all of whom were pupils of his. Honestly, far from dragging Salieri's name through the mud, Amadeus probably gave him more of a place in the history books than he'd had since he died.
In one scene of Iron Man, Obadiah Stane plays a couple bars of the Larghetto from one of Salieri's piano concertos as part of his announcement that Tony Stark's been ousted from Stark Industries. On the one hand, it alludes to the inaccurate picture of Salieri painted by Amadeus. On the other hand, do you seriously think Salieri would be well enough known for that scene to exist without Amadeus?
I can't actually find that scene, but here's the music:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOVz1RUjbpo
It's okay, but honestly, between Mozart and Beethoven, I can see why Salieri fell out of favor.
It's been quite some time since I last watched the movie, although I have the DVD, so I don't remember, if Salieri actually kills Mozart or if he just contributes to his demise. He's portraied as the one commissioning the requiem, which he didn't do, as we know today. It was some count, wanting it for his deceased wife and most of all wanted to sell it as his own work to his admirers. Which brings me to Mozart himself, who was a big earner but an even bigger spender. He had to virtually whore himself out to keep afloat. One of the first real pop stars, I would say, given his lifestyle of womanizing, drinking and gambling. Also according to his own letters, which point to a pretty vulgar down to earth person and not some august demi god as some as his present followers make him out to be.
Okay, in the movie, Salieri does indirectly kill him, but, in the play version (I have the script), he admits at the end that he created the story as a way of keeping his name alive throughout the generations.
Salieri, Amadeus, Act II, Scene 18 Wrote:(To Audience) Dawn has come. I must release you - and myself. One moment's violence and it's done. You see, I cannot accept this. I did not live on earth to be His joke for eternity. I will be remembered! I will be remembered! - if not in fame, then infamy.
One moment more and I win my battle with Him. Watch and see!... All this month I've been shouting about murder. "Have mercy, Mozart! Pardon you Assassin!" ... And now my last move. A false confession - short and convincing!
(He pulls it out of his pocket) How I really did murder Mozart - with arsenic - out of envy! And how I cannot live another day under the knowledge! By tonight they'll hear out there how I died - and they'll believe it's true ! ... Let them forget me then. For the rest of time whenever men say Mozart with love, they will say Salieri with loathing!... I am going to be immortal after all! And He is powerless to prevent it.
(To God) So Signore - see now if man is mocked! (The Valet comes in with a tray, bearing a bowl of hot shaving water, soap and a razor. ....(some parts omitted owing to insufficient space)... Salieri picks up the razor, and rises. He addresses the audience most simply and directly.)
Amici cari. I was born a pair of ears and nothing else. It is only through hearing music that I know God exists. Only through writing music that I could worship.... all around me men seek liberty for mankind. I sought only salvery for myself. To be owned - ordered - exhausted by an Absolute Music. This was denied me, and with it all meaning.
(He opens the razor) Now I go to become a ghost myself. I will stand in the shadows when you come here to this earth in your turns. And when you feel the dreadful bit of your failures - and hear the taunting of unachievable, uncaring God - I will whisper my name to you : "Salieri : Patron Saint of Mediocrities!" And in the depth of your downcastness you can pray to me. And I will forgive you. Vi saluto.
(He cuts his throat, and falls backwards into the wheelchair.....)
Apparently, in the Flesh World, the rumours of a rivalry between Salieri and Mozart seem to date all the way back to 1830 with Pushkin's Mozart and Salieri. In real life, the only real evidence of any acrimony between the two was how Lorenzo da Ponte had to be shuttled to Vienna while they were reworking the Prague staging of Don Giovanni, and a remark in one of his letters about being bitter that Salieri was chosen as a singing teacher for Princess Elisabeth of Wurttemberg over him.
And, of course, it should be noted that, by the time of his death, Salieri's music had already fallen from grace, largely because, well, tastes in music had changed, due in no small part to composers like Franz Liszt, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Franz Schubert, all of whom were pupils of his. Honestly, far from dragging Salieri's name through the mud, Amadeus probably gave him more of a place in the history books than he'd had since he died.
In one scene of Iron Man, Obadiah Stane plays a couple bars of the Larghetto from one of Salieri's piano concertos as part of his announcement that Tony Stark's been ousted from Stark Industries. On the one hand, it alludes to the inaccurate picture of Salieri painted by Amadeus. On the other hand, do you seriously think Salieri would be well enough known for that scene to exist without Amadeus?
I can't actually find that scene, but here's the music:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOVz1RUjbpo
It's okay, but honestly, between Mozart and Beethoven, I can see why Salieri fell out of favor.
Comparing the Universal Oneness of All Life to Yo Mama since 2010.
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I was born with the gift of laughter and a sense the world is mad.
I was born with the gift of laughter and a sense the world is mad.
