15 Questions about Amadeus | Movies

Answer: a trained monkey

Salieri the child wanted to make music. His father asked him if he wanted to be a trained monkey like the young Mozart. Throughout his youth, Mozart and his sister Nannerl toured the palaces of Europe as child prodigies. Other detractors also referred to the child Mozart as a trained monkey. More of a reflection upon the father than the child?

Answer: the creature

In fact, Mozart had a very puerile and off-color sense of humor. He enjoyed speaking backwards and had a high, strange laugh.

Answer: Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg

Mozart was unhappy working under the patronage system of his day. His employment with the prince archbishop was frustrating and stifling. The last 10 years of his life (age 25-35) Mozart strove to be a successful independent musician. If he had lived longer, he might have been the first composer to triumph over the patronage system.

As it happened, Beethoven is credited with being the first.

Answer: Don Giovanni

Mozart wrote "Don Giovanni" in the year after his father died. Although not successful at court (Salieri's influence?) the opera eventually gained much popularity with the people. Mozart used the librettist, Da Ponte, for the Italian story/text.

Answer: Emmanuel Schickaneder

Emmanuel Schickaneder was a prominent Viennese theater owner and fellow freemason of Mozart. He commissioned "The Magic Flute" ("Die Zauberflote") and is credited with creating the libretto for this beloved opera. (In truth he was probably a key collaborator.) The role of Papageno was originally written for Schickaneder. Since he appears in so many scenes in the movie (as he should), I wonder if other spoken references to him wound up on the cutting room floor.

Answer: one

Only Karl Thomas is shown in the movie, and the child never says a word! In truth, Constanze gave birth to a son, Franz Xaver Wolfgang, in July 1791, 5 months before Mozart died. This pregnancy/child was never shown or mentioned in the movie! (There has been some speculation about the paternity of Franz Xaver.) Of the six children, Karl Thomas and Franz Xaver Wolfgang were the only two who survived into adulthood. Salieri actually taught Karl Thomas as a composition student after Mozart's death.

He taught him for free.

Answer: Cynthia Nixon

Miranda Hobbes, ca. 1984. I cannot find letters or evidence that Salieri's mole/maid actually existed. Does anyone know if there is any factual basis for her?

Answer: F. Murray Abraham

Ironically, Salieri (Abraham) finally beat Wolfgang (Hulce) at something! Sam Waterston was also nominated for Best Actor in "The Killing Fields" and Simon Callow is the actor who played Schickaneder (not nominated). Maurice Jarre, who won the 1984 Oscar for original score ("A Passage to India") remarked that he was glad that Mozart was not eligible for nomination!

Answer: Marie Antoinette

Emperor Joseph mentions her several times in the movie. He references the time that the child Mozart asked her to marry him and he later mentions that his dear sister Antoinette "is beginning to fear her own people"... smart girl. (Her own people finally guillotined her.) Maria Theresa was Joseph's and Antoinette's mother and Elizabeth was Joseph's niece.

Answer: Tragedy/comedy

This is the mask that is resurrected for Salieri's harrassment of Mozart in the movie. In truth, the strange circumstances surrounding the "Requiem" commissioning are thought to be the work of Count Walsegg, a nobleman who was notorious for commissioning compositions and trying to pass them off as his own.

Answer: The dance scene

Count Orsini-Rosenberg was the Italian born master of opera in the court of Emperor Joseph II. Viennese composers were required to get his permission before beginning work on a new opera.

Answer: a vaudeville

"Singspiel" is very much like musical comedy. Vaudeville describes it well. In the hands of a genius such as Mozart, however, the resulting "Magic Flute" transcends the genre and becomes a masterpiece. Recommended: http://detnews.com/showtime/9710/16/opera/opera.htm
...a fascinating comparison of "The Magic Flute" and "Star Wars".

Answer: Papageno

Papageno is the comic relief in "The Magic Flute" (rather like C3PO in "Star Wars").

Answer: Frau Weber (his mother-in-law)

I don't know if this scene has any historical basis, but it is a rich moment in the film! Originally, Frau Weber was Mozart's landlady. He fell in love with her older daughter who did not return his affections. Then he turned his attention to Constanze, the younger. Maria Magdalena Hoffdeml is the focus of great rumor and speculation concerning Mozart.

Although she is never seen or mentioned in the movie, Maria was Mozart's piano student and alleged mistress. One of the Mozart death theories has Maria's angry husband attempting to murder her, poisoning Mozart, and committing suicide. Maria was pregnant during all this, supposedly with Mozart's child.

Answer: Antonio Salieri

The rumormill of the day was filled with stories of Salieri's poisoning of the great Mozart. These rumors are actually mentioned in Beethoven's conversation books. The entire movie is based on the assumption that Salieri's old age confession and alleged letter is truth.

In fact, no proof exists to support the idea that Salieri murdered Mozart. Proof does exist that he resented him, was very jealous of him, and sabotaged his work, but no proof of murder. Facts: Salieri was frequently at Mozart's deathbed and attended his funeral.

The "Requiem", however, was eventually completed by Mozart's composition student, Franz Xaver Sussmayer (recognize the youngest child's name?) who often accompanied Constanze to the spa at Baden Baden.