
Long-Lost Mozart-Salieri Collaboration Found in Prague - adamnemecek
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-13/mozart,-salieri-composition-found-in-prague/7165566
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olavk
The movie Amadeus is about god-given genius versus mere human skill, and
Mozart and Saliere are used in the movie as archtypes representing each. It is
not intended to be historical, and the relationship between the two composers
were totally different in real life.

It's a great movie, but it is not very historical correct, and does not intend
to be.

~~~
ekianjo
It's certainly not accurate, but the characters are totally believable and
there's nothing that does not make sense as long as you accept the premise of
the movie. And the inclusion of Mozart's score is brilliant from beginning to
end.

~~~
pervycreeper
Tom Hulce's portrayal of a cultured, clever, hardworking man as some kind of
ethereal buffoon couldn't have been farther from reality. The false picture
that it presents of talent would be harmful to those that it might have
influenced.

The defense that the characters were meant to be iconic stand-ins is also
undermined by the inclusion of so much accurate trivia (in addition to the
many inaccuracies)

~~~
pluteoid
The character of Mozart in Amadeus is more frivolous, more alcoholic and more
undisciplined than the real Mozart could have been, given his extraordinary
compositional output over such a short lifespan. But the film also shows
Mozart taking his art incredibly seriously and with a sense of great dignity.
He's determined to make time for working very hard (even as he lays dying in
bed), and fights movingly and eloquently for the commission of works he
passionately wants to create. And that passion is shown to be driven by a need
to express vital things about the human condition, with all its weaknesses and
sense of fun and as well as its sublimity. He's not just a buffoon, the
character has real depth.

The real Mozart on the other hand, as we know him from his letters, did have a
penchant for the vulgar, for the irreverent, for scatalogical humor, for good
booze, for pretty ladies, and all the rest of it. Of course that's just one
side of him.

Young musicians aren't so incredibly stupid as to be "harmed" by Amadeus –
it's clearly entertainment. One of its messages is that you can dedicate
yourself absolutely to the development of your art while retaining a sense of
playfulness. Another message is simply that this music is incredibly rich and
exciting and profound, music you can explore for a lifetime.

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yaakov34
Is there a more slandered person in all of history than Salieri? This is the
man who murdered the world's greatest musical genius in his prime out of
jealousy ... except that he fucking didn't, and the notion is ridiculous. The
man whose music wasn't performed in many countries as a result of this belief.
The man whose name became synonymous with talentless mediocrity - just because
we don't listen to opera from his period as much as we listen to some other
stuff.

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hellofunk
I'm taking a guess that you probably weren't a personal witness to the
interactions between Salieri and Mozart and thus can't say for sure if he was
involved with Mozart's death.

What _is_ a historical fact is that Salieri openly and explicitly prevented
Mozart's career from going where Mozart wanted it to go. Mozart's talent won
in the end, but Salieri _did_ go to great lengths to try and keep Mozart from
thriving. He was well-known to have placed many walls in the path of work for
Mozart, and this led to the reputation he has -- a product of his own making.

Whether or not he actually killed Mozart we can never truly know. But that
there is this "rumor" that he might have is only due to Salieri's own awful
behavior in the treatment of Mozart.

~~~
nabla9
>What is a historical fact is that Salieri openly and explicitly prevented
Mozart's career from going where Mozart wanted it to go.

Quotes from credible modern historians please. To my knowledge most historians
think that there is no concrete evidence of this. There was just competition
for jobs. Rest is drama added later.

>Whether or not he actually killed Mozart we can never truly know.

Good example of the false rumor. Salieri seems to even have confessed the
murder when he was delirious but nobody believed him even then. Later he took
that confession back.

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hellofunk
If you consider Mozart's own letters to be credible historical sources, he
wrote about Salieri's attempts to sabotage his career.

~~~
yaakov34
There is correspondence between Mozart and his father about a cabal of
Italians (especially the court composer Salieri) hindering him. I would say
this reflects worse on the Mozarts than it does on Salieri, who spent almost
his whole life in Vienna and didn't belong to any Italian cabals. In any case,
Mozart established himself rapidly in Vienna and his complaints about Salieri,
with whom he had friendly relations, trailed off.

This kind of thing is now a reason to accuse someone of the lowest kind of
murder out of jealousy?

