Amadeus

I just finished watching the Mozart film Amadeus. I thought I had seen it before but apparently not. Everything was new and everything was astounding! Was Mozart such a prick and did he lead such a life!?

I was first and foremost shocked how much of a monkey Mozart was. His laugh! His arrogance! His obsession with alcohol!

Second, Mozart seems to have focused a lot on opera? He seems solely focused on this art whilst in his financial difficulty.

Lastly, the movie goes on to tell how he died in the hands of a crazy man Salieri, who was the Kappelmeister or imperial music director of Austria, and was criminally jealous of Mozart for his own mediocrity.

After the end of the movie, I got a tingly feeling that this image of Mozart could all just be the imagination of the protaganist, the crazy composer Salieri whose mind was so jiggled that he imagined he killed his beloved and most respectful composer.

... and of course, I just read now that there is very little evidence of their rivalry and that this movie was entirely made up, loosely around two composers that lived in the same era!