Amadeus

Amadeus is the title of both a stage play and a film written in 1979 by Peter Shaffer, both loosely based on the lives of the composers Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri. Amadeus was inspired by Mozart and Salieri, a short play by Aleksandr Pushkin (later adapted into an opera by Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov).

Related Topics:
Stage play - Film - Written - 1979 - Peter Shaffer - Composers - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Antonio Salieri - Aleksandr Pushkin - Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov

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The title refers to a name that Mozart often used (he was baptized as Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart) as a pen name. It is a Latinization of the Greek Theophilus, which Mozart sometimes also Germanized as "Gottlieb." All three names mean "God-lover" or "Loved by God" and, aside from being a direct reference to Mozart, the title serves as an ironic reference to Salieri's relationship with God in the play and film (see the plot section, below, for more detail).

Related Topics:
Pen name - God

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Shaffer uses English to stand in for German throughout the play and film. That is, whenever the characters are speaking in English, the audience is to understand that they are speaking vernacular German. Indeed, even operas with libretti in German, such as Die Entführung aus dem Serail (The Abduction from the Seraglio) and Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) are translated into English, so as to maintain this conceit. Italian opera lyrics, on the other hand, are sung in the original to preserve their "foreign-ness" within the story.

Related Topics:
English - German - Opera - Libretti - Die Entführung aus dem Serail - Die Zauberflöte

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The play, and to a much larger extent the film, make use of Mozart's music (as well as that of a few other composers, including Salieri). The film famously opens with the powerful "Allegro con brio" from Mozart's Symphony No. 25 in G Minor, and closes with Mozart's inimitable Requiem. The film's score was performed by The Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, conducted by Sir Neville Marriner.

Related Topics:
Symphony - Requiem - The Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields - Sir Neville Marriner

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