Based on one of the most beloved stage-plays and winner of multiple academy awards, Amadeus is one of the most successful and beloved films of all time. But although this film about the rivalry between Antonio Salieri and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is remarkably brilliant, how much of it is actually true?
Let’s face it, Hollywood historical dramas are never 100% accurate. The film is obviously embellished more than once or twice, but the question is by how much does the movie take creative liberties with its plot? After researching the film and both musicians, we present for you five things that were entirely dramatized and five that were shockingly true.
Fact: Mozart was a Child Prodigy
This might come as common knowledge to some, but one of the things Amadeus did get right was the fact that Mozart was a gifted child prodigy. His reputation as a musical genius presented by Salieri builds up the surprise of his reveal when we’re introduced to him for the first time in the Prince Arch-Bishop’s court.
Mozart was indeed a musical genius from a very young age. Many scholars and music enthusiasts today compare him to what we would call a child star. His father, being a gifted composer himself, recognized his talents and essentially took him on the road to perform for various nobles and audiences.
Fiction: Salieri Took a Vow of Chastity
This one is perhaps the most easily debunked on our list, but one the film embellishes on immediately. Though we cannot speak for what occurred between Salieri and God, we do know that he was not chaste or celibate. In fact, he married and had children, and there are even rumors of a supposed affair with Catrina Cavalleri.
This is perhaps done to increase the fictional Salieri’s devotion to composing great music, by presenting the fact he’s willing to forsake desires of the flesh. Though a wife and kids are definitely hard evidence against this idea, that doesn’t mean his work was any less brilliant.
Fact: Mozart Did Have a Dirty Sense of Humor
When we are first introduced to Mozart in the film, he’s not presented as the gifted, brilliant, and professional composer we’re all expecting. Quite the opposite, in fact. He’s vulgar, childish, and chasing a girl through the Prince-Archbishop’s home. Does this really sound like what Salieri had built up?
As surprising as it sounds, this side of Mozart is actually more accurate than most thought. He had a taste and talent for fart jokes and even wrote his strange brand of toilet humor into some of his writings. Look up the composition “Lich mich im arse” if you don’t believe us.
Fiction: Mozart was an Alcoholic
While it’s true that Mozart was a little bit of a party animal, bad with money, and insanely immature and strange, evidence shows that the composer was more than likely not an alcoholic. In the film, we see Mozart guzzling down different libations. Bottles of various substances are seen scattered about his house and workspace, but this is all a highly romanticized image.
Though it has been said Mozart favored punch, as was customary during the time period, there is little evidence that he was a heavy drinker. With his gift for composing and creating beautiful music uninhibited, it’s very unlikely Mozart completed his work inebriated or under the influence.
Fact: Salieri Was a Well-renowned Music Instructor
Antonio Salieri, though not nearly as popular as his young, mad-genius rival, still had a sterling reputation as both a composer and a music instructor. Not only did the musician tutor the emperor and Catrina Cavalleri, but his list of pupils featured other great composers such as Hyden, Liszt, and even Beethoven.
With such a pedigree and talent for music, it makes sense that Salieri was a sought-after teacher, even by royalty and other composers. The film presents Salieri as a successful musician in Mozart’s shadow when in fact he still had a remarkable reputation, talent, and even somewhat of a fanbase.
Fiction: Salieri Manipulated the Emperor for His Position
Jumping off of the previous point, one of the biggest embellishments and exaggerations regarding Salieri is how manipulative he was towards his employer, Emporer Joseph II. The truth of the matter is, Salieri really didn’t have to manipulate anyone. He relied on his talent and reputation to earn his pupils and his living.
Though Mozart was very popular, Salieri also had one advantage over him. He was Italian. During this period, Italian composers like Salieri had more of a chance of getting published and employed. This is semi-referenced in the film when Salieri convinces the Emporer to grant him a position out of avoiding favoritism for the Austrian born composer.
Fact: A Mysterious Stranger Did Commission the Requiem Mass
Perhaps the most iconic visual in the entire film is Salieri as the masked messenger standing in Mozart’s doorway. In this moment that sounds almost entirely like something dreamed up by the writer of a Hollywood thriller, there’s actually more truth than fiction. The fictional element? It wasn’t Salieri.
“The Requiem Mass” was commissioned by Count Franz von Walsegg, who supposedly plagiarized and took credit for other composers, and planned to do the same on “The Requiem Mass”. Though he didn’t rely on a disguise, he sent messengers and worked in the shadows while Mozart died writing the music.
Fiction: Salieri Hated Mozart
Though there was indeed a musical rivalry between the two composers, there was hardly any animosity between them. In fact, Salieri and Mozart knew each other and even collaborated. If Salieri ever had a beef with Mozart at all, it was after his rival passed and became more famous and known than himself.
Salieri, though like many, was put off by Mozart’s eccentric nature, but reportedly adored Mozart’s opera Der Zauberflöte/The Magic Flute and, along with other composers, might have helped finish “The Requiem Mass.” The film presents Salieri’s hatred of Mozart as the catalyst of the film, but their rivalry was definitely more professional than that.
Fact: Salieri’s Attempted Suicide
The film opens with an old Salieri in a maddened stupor exclaiming how he killed Mozart before a pair of servants walk in on him shortly after slicing his wrists in a suicide attempt. This opening, though slightly dramatized in its delivery and portrayal, did in fact happen after Salieri was struck with dementia toward the end of his life.
In 1823, Salieri did attempt suicide, mental health practices and medicine were not as advanced or effective as they are today, but the suicide attempt landed him in a hospital, not an asylum. It was more than likely the attempt was due to mental illness, rather than a guilty conscience.
Fiction: Salieri Killed Mozart
And now we come to that famous line that starts the events of the film “Mozart, forgive your assassin.” Though a mentally unstable Salieri did confess to killing Mozart, he was not responsible for the musician’s death, but certain events did connect him with his rival’s passing.
The idea that Salieri killed Mozart was spawned from a rumor that Mozart suspected he was being poisoned, along with speculation that the rivalry between them was less than professional. Salieri later told one of his former pupils that the accusations about him were all rumors and hearsay without an ounce of truth. However, that didn’t stop the imagination of playwrights, filmmakers, and moviegoers.
