What happened to Mozart...

[iiipopes]

Probably true, historically and biologically speaking, but not nearly as romantic as the play "Amadeus." I'm not talking the movie, but the original play that came out beforehand. I saw it in London, and the main thrust of the play was Salieri's jealousy, and insinuated he was the masked, caped, man who kept bringing bottles of arsenic-laced wine to Mozart to get him to finish the Reqium.

[iiipopes]

My take on the movie is that Salieri is more the main character, and Mozart gets under his skin, while simultaneously Mozart seeks peer approval from Salieri.

You also get the idea from the movie that Mozart's partying and other excesses in living caught up to him, namely syphilis, as the cause of death.

But that's just my take on it.

[DonShirer]

In the play from whence the movie came, there is no hint of arsenic laced wine. Instead it is implied that Salieri's mental machinations sapped Mozart's will to live so he succumbed to his various health afflictions. (A few years ago I played the role of the Baron who both financed Mozart's compositions and then cut him off for being too non-traditional. Tuba playing helped with the breath support needed for his loud blusters!)

[iiipopes]

In the play from whence the movie came, there is no hint of arsenic laced wine. Instead it is implied that Salieri's mental machinations sapped Mozart's will to live so he succumbed to his various health afflictions. (A few years ago I played the role of the Baron who both financed Mozart's compositions and then cut him off for being too non-traditional. Tuba playing helped with the breath support needed for his loud blusters!)

I confess it has been over 25 years since I saw the play, so my memory, as I have seen the movie since, may be faulty on this point. The mental machinations you speak of, though, were very well done with the whispered echos of "Salieri!...Salieri!" interspersed here and there throughout the play, however.