MUSIC MALICE & MURDER
‘Everything you’ve heard is true,’ proclaimed the posters for Miloš Forman’s Amadeus – a cinematic tale of genius and envy, based on Peter Shaffer’s acclaimed stage play about Mozart and Salieri’s bitter rivalry. Forty years on, Charlotte Smith looks back at a very special production
F Murray Abraham as Salieri and Tom Hulce as Mozart in Amadeus
‘Mozart! Mozart! Forgive your assassin. I confess I killed you. Forgive me, Mozart!’ So, to the dramatic opening strains of Mozart’s G minor Symphony No. 25, begins Amadeus – perhaps the greatest film about classical music ever produced. Described as a ‘fantasia on the theme of Mozart and Salieri’ by Peter Shaffer, upon whose play the script was based, the film takes as its premise the ‘confession’ of Antonio Salieri to the murder of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – a rumour first circulated in 1825 when whisperings of a poisoning gripped Vienna, and embellished in the years that followed by playwright Alexander Pushkin and composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.
Though at times there may have been professional tensions, there is little historical evidence of a bitter rivalry between the two composers, let alone a murderous plot. Yet, this gripping black fantasy of genius and ‘mediocrity’ – as a jealous and wrathful Salieri must accept as his God-given fate – proves the perfect vehicle to showcase the dazzling skill and versatility of Mozart’s music, and to reflect in a surprisingly sophisticated way on the nature of brilliance, and creativity’s power to consume and destroy.
Released by Orion Pictures in September 1984, the film took the Oscars by storm the following March. Nominated in 11 categories, it won eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture for producer Saul Zaentz, Best Director for Miloš Forman, Best Screenplay for Peter Shaffer and Best Actor for F Murray Abraham, who played Antonio Salieri. Notably absent from this list, though, was Neville Marriner who, as director of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields (ASMF), supervised and recorded the film’s soundtrack. As the Oscars recognise only original scores, Marriner’s role went unrewarded, as Amadeus made near-exclusive use of Mozart’s unaltered music – acknowledged by Forman and Shaffer as the film’s ‘third character’.
It was their dedication to Mozart’s music that set the tone for the project, and precipitated a highly original production schedule. Forman had seen the play during its debut London run in 1979 and approached Shaffer to adapt the
