Amadeus
Amadeus Author: Peter Shaffer
First Performance: 1979, London
Published: 1980; rev. 1981
Genre: Trag. in 2 acts
Setting: Vienna, 1823, and 1781–91
Cast: 12m, 3f, extras
In old age, Antonio Salieri, Court Composer to the Austrian Emperor Joseph II, recalls his rivalry with the brilliant young composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, in the last ten years of Mozart's life. He recreates scenes where Mozart's genius is acknowledged by the court and reveals his attempts to undermine this upstart 25-year-old, who is vulgar and often childish in behaviour. While Mozart's operas bring him popular acclaim, Salieri's jealousy of his talent develops into obsessive hatred, and he manages to further his own career at Mozart's expense; he tries to seduce his wife Constanze and, when Mozart's father dies in 1787, pretends to be...
[The entire page is 268 words long]
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