Rivalry In The Movie Amadeus

The movie Amadeus depicts a very bitter rivalry between Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri. A rivalry that consisted of Mozart attempting to upstage or better Salieri and Salieri attempting to use his authority to sabotage Mozart every time the opportunity presented itself. The movie set a seedy undertone that implied that Salieri was responsible for the death of Mozart. The theory was that due to his jealousy, Salieri poisoned Mozart. While it is true that the musical world was largely a competition and each composer was constantly working to prove himself, the truth is that Salieri and Mozart were only every in direct competition when both composers were trying to obtain the job of giving lessons to Emperor Joseph’s niece. Ultimately, given his standing and reputation at the time Salieri was awarded the position. According to the biography of Antonio Salieri at Salieri-online.com, it is said that while they were rivals on a professional level, there was a comradery between the two men, especially after Salieri was relieved of his position in as Hofkapellmeister. “Though it is doubtful that Mozart addressed Salieri as 'Papa' or that the quote even reflects Mozart's exact

There was in fact a rivalry between two composers, but it wasn’t Mozart and Salieri, it was Lorenzo Da Ponte and Giovanni Battista Casti. Salieri did work with both which is why when this “faction” of the music worlds feud started effecting Mozart’s progress, Salieri was said to be sabotaging Mozart. The movie also depicts that Salieri had a plan to commission a piece from Mozart, kill him and then pass the piece off as his own. Mozart was commissioned to write a requiem and the intent was for the commissioner to kill Mozart and pass it off as his own, but the requiem was commissioned by Count Franz Walsegg-Stuppach, not Antonio