WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART

(1756-1791)

    Part of the reason why AMADEUS has been such a popular and successful film is because it has taken primary sources of letters, compositions, memoirs and other original documentation from the time period and developed an exciting and humorous drama that focuses upon a man with whom the public has been fascinated for generations. Yet, it is the fascination with Mozart himself  and the culture that surrounds him, that allows the existence of these artifacts to be more than simple 'facts',  but rather, evidence that is twisted and changed to suit interpretation and business success in the film industry.

Childhood       Traits           Constanza        Alcohol    

Childhood

    Mozart was a child prodigy who toured Europe from one capital to another from the age of four. From 1771-1781 he was concert master to the archbishop of Salzburg. He moved to Vienna and became court composer to Emperor Joseph II in 1787. He died four years later at the age of 35, having composed over 600 musical works. ( Angermueller, R.(1980) The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians )

    Mozart 's personality in AMADEUS is portrayed as childlike and unworthy concerning his genius in music. He exhibits a most ridiculous laugh utterly fictional and executed by Tom Hulce with consistent entertainment. The element of vulgar humor, though exaggerated to an extent by Forman, was true, yet certainly not in public towards royalty or musical rivals as implied. (Fulbright, J. (1996). An Analysis of Amadeus)

    Mozart's relationship with his father Leopold is uncertain. As a young man, Mozart conducted himself as he ought, but as he grew so did his personal desires and bold intentions to fulfill them. The film depicts Leopold's visit to his son on February 11 until April 25, 1785 as his last before his death. This is contrary to the reality of the situation, as this visit was in fact paid during a time of high popularity and great success for Mozart. 

Traits

    Unexpectedly Mozart is also portrayed as having no inclination as to how to behave in court. This would in reality be difficult to justify, because as a young prodigy touring Europe, he would have learned the manners in which to conduct himself correctly and would never have exhibited such appalling behavior as that demonstrated before the Emperor and the court upon his introduction, openly insulting the march written in his honor. 

    The ways in which in the film displays a complete and utter disrespect for the composer is somewhat surprising. His musical genius appears effortless, understated and at times vulgar and appalling as may be noted in the "vaudeville scene". Although it is highly possible that the composer contained these childlike aspects to his personality, it is highly improbable that they were taken to such extremes. And the idea that Mozart's draft compositions were without faults is wholly untrue.

    The historian's resistance towards Hulce's portrayal of Mozart as an image of comical drunken madness is understandable. Following Mozart's death, many of those original documents and letters which described or implied the man to be other than an "angelic genius" were censored and discreetly left out of his early biographies . It may be argued that the critics reacted in a similar way to Salieri's portrayal in the film. Refusing to reconcile  themselves to the dichotomy of character, the God-like sound expressed by such a disgusting creature. Thus, in this view, Shaffer, Forman, and Hulce give us a very realistic, restored picture of Mozart, one that takes into account many of the opposing and contrasting more objective (not completely of course) historical accounts. They utilize a wider selection of evidence in an attempt to draw a more realistic picture of the composer as a "multi-dimensional" human being. Thus, they recognizing a crude and unseemly side to him that was indeed odd to say the very least. "All at once he jumped up," remembered Karoline Pichler of the aftermath of an exquisite improvisation on an aria from Figaro, "and as he often did in one of his foolish moods, began to leap over tables and chairs, meowing like a cat, and turning somersaults like an unruly boy." (www.mozartproject.org/essays/)

Constanza

Alcohol 

    In the film, the underlying element of alcohol and the drinking to excess is simply a hyperbole. Mozart is portrayed as being an incorrigible alcoholic which in reality would appear somewhat out of character, as it would have impaired both his mind and his compositions. Although, it may be noted, that he did drink and this did increase in the final two years of his life, yet simply not to the extreme seen in the film.