Amadeus
Extras
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Born in 1756, Mozart was one of the most exploited child prodigies in the history of music; as with most he remained reliant on his father, failing to grow up, unable to meet the demands of society and life. He was considered supreme in all forms of music, and was the finest pianist, organist and conductor in Europe he spend 14 of his 35 years touring. Even with such an outstanding talent, Mozart never secured a permanent position at court with a guaranteed salary.
Mozart married Constanze Weber August 14, 1782, forgetting to inform his father of the date. In a letter to his father he refers to her as 'not ugly, but by no means a beauty'. She was actually from a penniless family of dubious character; a giddy and flirtatious girl, a bad manager and no help at all to Mozart's social status.
His astonishingly prolific output included 20 operatic works, 17 masses, 21 piano concerti, concerti for violin and also for wind instruments, 27 string quartets, six string quintets, as well as much other chamber music and 41 symphonies. His operas tended to favour the singspiel style, particularly The Abduction from the Seraglio (1782) recalling the contemporary vogue for Turkish content. By 1791 when The Magic Flute was written, he had finally achieved the perfect synthesis between the German language and the ancestry of German music he was so keen to combine and preserve.
Antonio Salieri was driven to one performance of The Magic Flute by Mozart himself: 'At 6 o'clock I called in the carriage for Salieri and Madame Cavalieri and drove them to my box. Then I drove back quickly to fetch Mamma and Karl, whom I had left at Hofer's. You can hardly imagine how charming they were and how much they like not only my music, but the libretto and everything... Salieri listened and watched most attentively, and from the overture to the last chorus there was not a single number that did not call forth from him a bravo! or a bello!'
Antonio Salieri
Born at Legnago, near Verona, in 1750, Antonio Salieri was a renowned composer and much applauded conductor, an associate of Gluck and Haydn, and the teacher of Beethoven, Schubert and Liszt. He is best known for his operas and similar works, entering the royal service in Vienna in his early twenties and remaining there until his death in 1825. Salieri was almost exclusively an opera composer and wrote hardly anything else, least of all instrumental works.
Joseph II had a general preference for Italian opera - however, there is no evidence for a preference for an opera by Salieri over one by Mozart. Evidence tends to suggest that the two admired each other greatly, and maintained cordial relations, except for occasional misunderstandings that were always aggravated by Salieri's advantageous position as director of the theatre. Joseph II welcomed this friendly rivalry between the two composers, and proved it by commissioning both of them to write short operas for the entertainment of visiting royalty, thus Mozart's Schauspieldirektor and Salieri's Prima la musica e poi le parole were performed in Schönbrunn on the same evening.
The conflict between Mozart and the Kammermusikdirektor, Antonio Salieri, is mostly the product of wild speculation and includes the notion that Salieri poisoned his rival. This became the basis of a 'dramatic dialogue' written by Puskin, which was converted into an opera by Rimsky-Korsakof: Mozart and Salieri. Mozart's letters contain various remarks, such as the Emperor appreciated '...no one but Salieri' (December 1781), and 'I will tell you about Salieri's plots, which, however, have completely failed already' (December 1789). The latter was written only one week after Salieri arranged for the first performance of the Clarinet Quintet (K. 581) at a concert presented by the Tonkünstlersozietät, of which he was president. The 'plots' were probably professional differences such as one might expect to develop in an opera house.
