Amadeus is a stage play written in 1979 by Peter Shaffer, loosely based on the lives of the composers Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri, says wikipedia.
Amadeus was inspired by Mozart and Salieri, a short play by Aleksandr Pushkin and later adapted into an opera of the same name by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Shaffer then adapted the play for a film released in 1984.
Historical background
Shaffer took dramatic licence in his portrayals of both Mozart and Salieri, but there is debate as to just how much. Documentary evidence suggests that there was some antipathy between Mozart and Salieri, but the idea that Salieri was the instigator of Mozart's demise is not given academic credence. While there may have been real rivalry between Mozart and Salieri, there is also evidence that they enjoyed a relationship marked by mutual respect.[1] For example, Salieri later tutored Mozart's son Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart in music.
Surviving letters by and about Mozart give examples of his boorish and often crude sense of humour, with a penchant for coprophilic jokes. Mozart was extremely childlike, almost never able to sit still, even during others' performances. He was self-confident to the point of arrogance and his stubbornness and penchant for juvenile indulgences often annoyed his more staid peers.
Extant records show Mozart was not a good money manager and suffered from large debts (he loved clothing and spent huge sums on it) and also favoured partying, drinking, gambling and possibly drug use. As portrayed in Amadeus, Mozart actually comes off as fairly tame. However, he also had a huge income, particularly from his own performances as a conductor or musician. There is no evidence that he didn't pay back his loans even if many letters shows that he often was out of money. Mozart's relationship with his father as portrayed in the film seems to be accurate, judging from the subtext of their letters to each other.
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