Amadeus Analysis

2.2 Psychological and psychoanalytic elements

This focus on the interior activity of the characters is typical of psychological plays
and films. In Amadeus, the psychological elements are presented in a psychoanalytic
manner regarding the portrayal of Salieri and the development of his mental
condition.

It is really Salieri and not Mozart whose mind we are invited to enter. The dramatic
situation is that of a deathbed confession. It resembles a psychoanalytic session in
which the narrator is the patient and the audience takes over the role of the analyst.
His narrators control the prism through which the work is viewed; this allows him
to manipulate the spectators' reception of the events on stage.

Salieri is the narrator. He is at no time objective and we see the action on stage
only through his eyes, often clouded with envy, hate, and pain. The audience is
subjected to something that appears to be a free flow of Salieri's consciousness,
but his narration is only seemingly incoherent. In reality, he is leading his listeners
deep into his mind, so that they can experience his tragedy almost directly.

Throughout the plot, Salieri is shown to develop a love-hate relationship with his
rival. There is a part of him that admires him for his independence. Mozart's
libertine behavior: Salieri is enraged when Mozart seduces his prize pupil Katherina
Cavalieri, but only because he regrets not having done it himself when he was given
the opportunity. He feels cheated and the incident merely nourishes his hate.

One way of interpreting this relationship is to regard Mozart as the alter ego of
Salieri, the personification of all the instincts and secret wishes that he had stifled
in himself all his life, in short -- his id. This conflict between the id and the
superego is carried out on several levels. For example, it is expressed in the clash
between Salieri and Mozart:

Salieri is shown as being strongly dominated by his superego, Mozart is presented

as being dominated much more by his id.

Salieri’s sweet tooth is obviously a compensation for his poor sex life.
Nevertheless, he later breaks his vow of sexual virtue and makes Katherina
Cavalieri his mistress. In the film, he is presented as strictly celibate, like a mad
Satanist monk.

There is also a conflict between Mozart and his father Leopold, a strong and
domineering superego. Since Mozart is shown as immature and irresponsible, he
is never able to free himself from Leopold's overpowering influence and always
remains the little boy who fears his severe father. In his immaturity, his
1
irresponsibility and childish behavior, as well as his sexual profligacy, Mozart
represents the id. His father, on the other hand, is the controlling agent who looks
after his son's interests, but demands subordination in return. In the end, both
psychological conflicts end in disaster.

2.3 The conflict of personalities

A conflict between opposing elements: faithfulness is played against faithlessness;
passion and violence against impotence; passionate creativity against classical
balance and duty. These last two elements are the theme of Amadeus. Shaffer
"creates two distinct characters in the plot, to reflect what is for him the major
schism in our natures", namely the archetypal antagonism between the Apollonian
and the Dionysian forces of man's psyche.

The idea of Dionysian and Apollonian personalities originates from Friedrich

Nietzsche. The two elements of tragedy [...] are the Apollonian (related to the
Greek god Apollo, here used as a symbol of measured restraint) and the Dionysian
(from Dionysus, the Greek god of ecstasy). [...] The essence of this [...] tragic effect
is that it both reveals and conceals, causing both pain and joy.

Nietzsche emphasizes music as belonging to the Dionysian rather than to the

Apollonian sphere. He describes two opposing kinds of music.

This conflict of sobriety versus passion and mediocrity versus genius lies at the
core of Amadeus. The childlike Mozart is the incarnation of everything that Salieri
has relentlessly banished from his mind: instinct, chaos, freedom, humor, play.
However, the struggle between the Dionysian and the Apollonian is carried out
not only between Mozart and Salieri, or Mozart and the court, but also within both
protagonists. In Salieri, the Apollonian forces dominate: his innate Dionysian urge
to sing to God is suppressed by his Apollonian inability to break out of established
musical patterns. In Mozart, the Dionysian element that allows him to compose
original and divine music is so powerful that it stifles the Apollonian reason that
would enable him to find social acceptance.

3.2 Deletions and additions

In order to arrive at a cinematic version of Amadeus, Shaffer and Forman were
compelled to rewrite the play completely. The result is that the focus of the film is
shifted slightly from Salieri onto Mozart, and the whole drama becomes less of a
psychological analysis and more of a fascinating story.

The deletions concerned, among others, Shaffer's operatic devices such as the two
Venticelli. In the play, they function as a chorus informing the audience -- as well
as Salieri -- of what cannot be shown on stage directly. In the film, such a device
2
is not necessary, as the camera can simply show the described scenes. A character
added as a realistic replacement for the Venticelli is the servant girl Lorl whom
Salieri hires to work at the Mozarts' household and to spy on them. She is now the
one who provides information about Mozart's financial affairs, his domestic life,
and his work.

An important deletion is Salieri's seduction of Constanze. In the play, Salieri wants

to seduce her in order to humiliate his rival, but when Constanze offers herself to
him, he is appalled at her vulgarity and rejects her. In the final draft of the
screenplay, the seduction scene is extended and Salieri not only seduces Constanze,
but also humiliates her deeply. In the film, however, the seduction is again only
verbal, because after seeing Mozart's manuscripts Salieri is so overwhelmed that
he does not think of his wife anymore.

Mozart's membership in the Masonic Lodge, which plays a very important role in
the play, is another element that has been completely removed. In the play, the
Masons accept Mozart as a fellow brother and support him financially when he is
bankrupt. Before this background, Salieri's intrigue concerning The Magic Flute is
both vile and ingenious. Knowing that Mozart is a member of the Masons, Salieri
uses this fact to his own benefit and to the detriment of Mozart's opera. Advised
by Salieri, Mozart puts Masonic elements into The Magic Flute, and thereby arouses
the wrath of his fellow Masons. Consequently, he is expelled from the Lodge and
is completely ruined financially. The film ignores the Masonic elements of the play
altogether. Without the Masonic context, some elements of the film become
ambiguous, for instance Mozart's burial ceremony, or the symbolism of The Magic
Flute.

In the play, Mozart's father does not appear at all, except in the commentaries of
the two Venticelli. It is only through Salieri's realization that the audience
understands Mozart's emotional dependence on his father and his feeling of guilt
towards him. In the film, we can see the relationship develop before our eyes,
which permits us a better understanding of Mozart as a man. Moreover, some
scenes at the Archbishop's court are added to show the servant status of an
eighteenth-century musician and Mozart's lack of conformity.

Further scenes that exist in the play only as drafts or hints are expanded and
refined. The most important of these scenes are fragments of Mozart's operas
performed on stage. In the theatre, it was only possible to show the audience and
play fragments of arias in the background, whereas in the film we can see a live
performance as well as the audience and hear the music in accordance with the
action on stage. Similarly, the vaudeville scenes at Emanuel Schikaneder's theatre
underline Mozart's popularity and his ability to write popular tunes. In this way, it
was possible to give the audience a better idea of Mozart's musical genius.

3
3.3 Narrative sequence
The plot of Amadeus is enclosed in an outer narrative frame, in which Salieri is the
mediator between past and present, reflection and action. The story of Mozart's
life in Vienna and his early death is told in retrospective by the aged, but still
suffering Salieri.

Both the play and the film consist of a blend of enacted episodes from the past
and direct comments from the old Salieri. This creates a greater distance between
the viewer and the recounted events and leaves Shaffer a free hand for interpreting
history. The introduction of the priest in the film reduces the audience's
responsibility, as it is not asked to judge any more, merely to listen to a tragic
account. Still, the fact that Salieri is less threatening to the audience in the film does
not damage his credibility or make his psychological portrait less profound.

Salieri's revenge is the turning point in both the play and film, spinning the story
into its more tense second half.

One of the most striking changes concerns the scene of Mozart's death. On stage,
Salieri comes to visit Mozart at night and reveals himself as the masked stranger.
Mozart, very ill already and shocked at the realization that a man he believed to be
his best friend is in reality his worst enemy, dies shortly afterwards in his wife's
arms. In the film, the deathbed scene depicts "a nightlong encounter between a
physically dying Mozart and a spiritually ravenous Salieri". Mozart's last night
revolves around the requiem commissioned by the mysterious stranger, a mass
that Mozart believes to be for his dead father, but that he is really writing for
himself. "[...] [W]hen Mozart gets too ill to compose, Salieri himself writes down
the score as Mozart struggles to dictate the notes, a climax that is moving and
ironic, engaging and horrifying.

Finally, the very last scene of the play and the film, in which Salieri absolves all
mediocrities of the world, has changed its emphasis. On stage, Salieri's words are
directed to the audience, and so we ourselves, who were gods before, become the
"mediocrities" to which he refers.

3.4 The characters in the play and the film

The character development in the play and the film differs greatly. This is partly
due to the adaptation technique, and partly a result of Shaffer's further revisions
of his text. In the following part, I will describe the changes that the particular
characters undergo on their way from stage to screen, as well as the means of
their characterization.

4
3.4.1 Salieri

The reason why Salieri manages to fascinate audiences in both the theatre and the
cinema is that he is more than a villain, a knave of the devil sent out to destroy
God's beloved Mozart: outside the darker regions of his mind, he is quite a likeable
person. He is ambitious, polished, virtuous, ironic -- only he is not a musical
genius. On the other hand, he is obsessed with "finding an absolute in music". In
his character, Shaffer presents "an anatomy of failed mediocrity". "[Salieri's] self-
doubt, which is both the cause and the result of his frustration, eventually turns
into self-hate, ready to be projected upon a convenient enemy". Before Mozart's
arrival, Salieri is a happy man. He is popular and respected as a musician and thinks
that the great dream of his life has come true:
OLD SALIERI
[...] One moment I was a frustrated little boy in an obscure little town
-- the next I was here, in Vienna, City of Musicians! [...] I was
introduced personally to the Emperor! Within a few years I was his Court
Composer. [...] Everybody liked me. I liked myself. (Screenplay, 11f.)

Although in reality he was "rich, famous, powerful, popular and a good musician",
in Amadeus he is presented as a man of little ability and a "musical idiot". It is true
that his music followed different conventions than that of Mozart, but in the play
Mozart derides his work as "[t]onic and dominant, tonic and dominant, from here
to resurrection!" Hearing Mozart jeer at Salieri, we begin to understand "the
tragedy of the man of modest talent, musical enough to recognize [...] the true
greatness of genius, but not talented enough himself to match it".

Faced with Mozart's genius, Salieri realizes his own mediocrity and suffers so
much that he naturally arouses compassion. The emotional effect of Mozart's
music on Salieri is astounding and far greater than on anyone else.

Salieri is in the hopeless situation of a man incurably infatuated with his greatest
enemy, or rather his music, and this "madness of a man splitting in half" sometimes
drives him to paradoxical actions. He does everything in his power to stop The
Wedding of Figaro from being produced at the National Theatre. When the libretto
is accepted by the Emperor in spite of its political inappropriateness, Salieri
cunningly attacks the presence of a ballet in the third act of the opera. At the time,
ballet scenes in opera were forbidden by the Emperor. Under this pretext, Salieri
gets Orsini-Rosenberg, Director of the Imperial Opera, to remove the ballet.
When Mozart manages to persuade Joseph to restore it and the opera is finally
produced, Salieri uses all his connections, and Figaro is cancelled after nine
performances. Nonetheless, Salieri secretly goes to see every one of them and
every time he is moved to tears. This contradiction results from his self-imposed
mission to destroy his idol, and it is the core of his personal tragedy. At times,
Salieri even feels pity for his victim who is "so frail, so palpably mortal", but as
"each man kills the thing he loves", Salieri follows his destiny and destroys Mozart,
5
God's preferred creature. After this, his life becomes meaningless and his fame a
farce.

Salieri's last attempt to gain immortality is a false confession, in which he claims

to have killed Mozart. He has a desperate longing to be remembered by posterity,
"if not in fame, then infamy".

Yet, even this final and desperate attempt fails and Salieri has to drain his bitter
cup to the dregs. He survives the suicidal attempt to cut his throat, no one believes
his confession, and he has to spend the rest of his days in the torment of oblivion.
He has lost his battle against God. By the time he dies, the world has completely
forgotten both him and his music.

3.4.2 Mozart

In the play, Mozart is not nearly so complex a figure as his counterpart and
functions as an antagonist rather than a protagonist. His characterization is a
somewhat one-sided and superficial caricature. Shaffer presents him as childish,
arrogant, and foul-mouthed; admittedly, he is gifted, but too boorish and impulsive
to be successful at the imperial court. Yet, the play does not show Mozart in a bad
light altogether. We are presented with a quite ambivalent picture of Mozart as a
child-man. A Mozart with an anal fixation. A Mozart as a permanent adolescent.
A Mozart who used foul language, who had a sharp tongue, who was notably
ungenerous about his colleagues, who was a womanizer and, at the end, a poverty-
stricken alcoholic. But also a Mozart true to himself and his musical vision.
Whatever Mozart was as a man -- in his real life as in the play -- in music he was
pure.

Nevertheless, Mozart's positive features are not very convincing in the play,
because in comparison to the cinema, the theatre has only limited means of
presenting musical genius. This is done much better in the film, and the result is a
decidedly more likeable Mozart than we see in the play. On stage, Mozart is mean-
spirited and disloyal to his friends. He is vain, conceited, and talks about his
colleagues behind their backs or insults them directly.

He is arrogant and self-assured beyond all measure. Yet his genius is undeniable
and, perhaps, gives him the right to consider himself the best composer in the
world. On stage, Mozart is also libertine in behavior and unfaithful to his wife, and
shocks audiences with his scatological language and obscene word games. He is
altogether a caricature rather than a real man, and he seems a creation of the Devil
rather than of God. But we also see Mozart as an inspired composer who is not a
mere instrument of God, but a man with his own views about music in general
and opera in particular.

6
The film presents him in a similar manner, but adds some scenes that show his
character in a new light. On stage, we see Mozart only through the eyes of Salieri;
the eye of the camera, on the other hand, gives the impression of objectivity and
requires a more naturalistic approach.

Evolution of Drama

Play: a story in the form of a dialogue, performed by actors on a stage, before an

audience. Drama combines language and representational arts: scenery, costumes,
actors (physical appearance, vocal emphasis, non-verbal forms), music and dance.

Drama began as a religious ceremony or ritual intended to secure the continuity of

life. It began in Greece, as festivals in order to the god Dionysus. Drama evolved
in two major forms:

Tragedy: performances full of lamentations, common topics were death and

misfortunes of a hero and his fall into disgrace. Sophocles

Comedy: wild, noisy party (drinking, sex). Performances full of humor, sexual
allusions that produced humor, indecent language, they made fun of politicians.
Aristophanes.

Distinctive elements

- Familiar topics
- Audience: people from all levels of society/it was a kind of social duty.
- Costumes: masks (primitive megaphones)
- Presence of a chorus: Ancient Greek tragedy, the chorus is a
homogeneous, non-individualized group of performers who comment with
a collective voice on the dramatic action. 12 to 50 players who danced, sang
and/or spoke their lines in unison and who sometimes wore masks.
- Aristotelian unities (place-time-action) were followed.
1. Unity of action: one action that is followed with minimal subplots.
2. Unity of time: the action should occur over a period of no more than
24 hours.
3. Unity of place: in a single physical space and should not attempt to
compress geography, nor should the stage represent more than one
place.
- Plays started near the climactic moment or with a climax.
- Constant setting/messenger: appeared to bring information, comment
on characters who were not present, sometimes to say that one day has
passed. Dramatic time VS Actual time.

7
 Greece was conquered by the Roman Empire.

With the fall of the Roman Empire (467 AC) theaters disappeared for a
thousand years.

Middle Ages/Medieval times: 1300 AD

The reappearance of theaters with the church: plays were now filled moral and
religious instructions: drama had a didactic purpose. (Again, as in Greece,
drama had religious origins).

3 different types of plays:

1. Mysteries/Miracle plays: based on religious topics. Inspiration being the

Bible: representations of the lives of saints, parts of the Old Testament.
They moved to the churchyard or other open spaces or to wagons which
were used as stages. They also started to include humor and this led to the
separation from the church though they never lost the religious impact they
had.
2. Morality plays/Moralities: performed by professional trade guilds and
they still kept a didactic function but with a different method as they made
use of allegories. Characters: represented ideas: vices and virtues. Popular
themes were the 7 deadly sins, the 7 cardinal virtues, etc.
Moralities were then allegories in dramatic form, dramatizations of the
battle between good and evil within human beings and this battle finally led
human beings to heaven or to hell.
3. Interludes: they were the last predecessors of drama as we know it today.
Towards the end of the XV century still in the same allegorical way, with
general moral problems though with more pronounced realistic and comic
elements.
They were short plays that introduced real characters, usually of humble
rank and they used a lot of coarse language. Performed as an entertainment
in between the courses of a feast or in between the acts of a longer play.

Renaissance Theater

Known as the Golden Age of Drama. Exceptional dramatic poets, actors, theaters
and audiences. Shift in interest and themes: from religion to politics. Humanist
influence from the Renaissance, and classical influence, too: introduction of
tragedies from Greece and Rome.

William Shakespeare/Christopher Marlowe/Ben Jonson: playwrights and

poets who belonged to a groups called the University Wits. They dealt with tragic
and heroic themes and were contributors to the Elizabethan School of Drama.

8
Strolling companies of actors that moved around the cities performing in halls and
yards, until the interest in drama grew and sometimes theaters were built. Male
actors played all the parts (both male and female) as women were not allowed to
perform. Drama evolved and reached its highest peak.

William Shakespeare wrote tragedies, comedies, and historical plays/sonnets.

Ben Jonson was another important Elizabethan dramatist, developed a short

dramatic performance known as courtly theater of the mask. It was an extensive
production aimed at being performed at the court, for princes and dukes.

Characteristics of Elizabethan Drama:

The Stage. Introduced into the audience (this created a feeling of intimacy/use of
asides: words spoken by an actor to the audience, these were not heard by the
other characters) / soliloquies: a dramatic or literary form of discourse in which a
characters talks to him/herself and reveals his/her thoughts when alone.
Sometimes he is not aware of the presence of other characters. The stage was
circular and with an open roof. There were no curtains (they appeared later on). It
was a versatile kind of theater with different acting areas / changes in setting
indicated by words: there are moves in time and place now (the Aristotelian units
are broken here). Plays start at the beginning of a story.

Closing of the theaters and restoration period

A time of political unrest. There was a Civil War, King Charles I is beheaded and
the republic of Oliver Cromwell is instituted. Civil disturbance and the strong
opposition of the Puritans combined to oppress drama and this led to the closing
of theaters in 1642.

1660 is considered to be the year in which the period known as Restoration begins.
It is related to the restoration of the monarchy: King Charles II is restored to the
throne in this year. While in France he developed a great interest in the arts, music,
literature, painting, etc. He takes all this with him when he goes back to England.

This period is also known as Neoclassicism/Neoclassical period (late 17 th early

18th century). There was a renewed interest in the Greek and Roman classics. They
followed strict rules of composition. These were rules against the exuberance of
the Renaissance. Each particular genre had to respect a particular style and so they
did not mix poetry with drama or with prose. They also received continental
influence.

9
 Late 19th century: Victorian Period

Melodrama (1870): a kind of naively sensational entertainment with

unconvincing characters, simple and easy dialogue, use of music and sound effects,
a lot of suspense and excitement and sudden reversal (plot twist).

Music hall: melodrama emerges because the lower classes that worked for long
hours need some kind of light entertainment, not intellectual.

Drama of Ideas/Thesis play (1890): the kind of play that paved the way for very
important writers like George Bernard Shaw (1856 – 1950) and Oscar Wilde (1854
– 1900). More realistic kind of drama that focuses on social problems and
construction of characters’ internal conflicts. They deal with a specific problem
and most probably offer a solution. Themes: criticism of society, of certain
professions (politics and soldiers), marriage conventions and religion.

Oscar Wilde: He rejected and criticized Victorian values, and he questioned

institutions like the government, the church.

Reshaping of the well-made play (1830) – Eugene Scribe’s new model, more
emphasis on action than character description or development; a logical
procession of cause and effect to arrive at a climactic scene.

20th century: Inter War Years:

Disenchanted characters, angry at the world they live in, untidy people who use
aggressive language: all elements they use to reflect their anger at that
contemporary society.

Samuel Beckett: Waiting for Godot (1953). Theater of the Absurd: a

philosophical kind of drama. Emphasis on lack of communication among human
beings / Existentialist belief.

Kitchen-sink drama (late 50s): drama that portrays the life of the working
composition. A kind of drama that explores contemporary issues and ideas. A
period of experimentation: appearance of varied techniques and sources. Technical
developments: lights, machinery to manipulate setting. Everything that happens
on the stage should be functional, not necessarily realistic, not necessarily a mirror
to reality.

Epic Theater:

 Developed in Germany in the 1920s by Bertolt Brecht

 It has the form of narrative or chronicle play: drama with a theme from
history consisting usually of loosely connected episodes chronologically
arranged.

10
  Mainly concerned with encouraging audiences to think.
 Epic drama was a reaction against other previous popular forms of theater
(naturalistic drama with the objective of presenting an illusion of real life).
 Makes use of multiple and sometimes, contradictory perspectives.
 There is sometimes a narrator, background (contributes to the recalling
simultaneous events).
 Sometimes, they make use of projections that confirm or contradict the
historical documents.
 There is also a chorus (with a function similar to that of the Greek chorus)
 Inclusion of films, music, masks, mimes.
 Device of addressing the audience, generally associated with the presence
of a narrator in the play or any other character that makes “contact” with
the audience.

Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956): suggested that a play should not cause the spectator
to identify emotionally with the characters or action before them, but should
instead provoke a rational and critical view of the action on the stage. Brecht
thought that the experience of a climatic catharsis of emotion left an audience
pleased.

He wanted his audiences to adopt a critical perspective in order to recognize social

injustice and exploitation and to be moved to go forth from the theater and effect
change in the world outside. For this purpose, Brecht employed the use of
techniques that remind the spectator that the play is a representation of reality and
not reality itself. He aimed at persuading the audience to distance themselves from
the make believe characters.

2 important techniques

Theatricalism: to make the audience A-effect (distancing or alienation

aware that they are in the theater
watching a play so as to maintain the
objectivity necessary to learn a truth. If
you feel identified with the characters
on the stage and get involved in the
illusion you lose the capacity of
criticism.
effect) becoming detached from the
incidents and characters. To make the
familiar strange. Incidents must call for
explanation, not to be taken for
granted.

Brecht on Alienation (the A-effect)

The difference between the dramatic and epic forms was attributed to their
different methods of construction. The method of construction depended on the
different way of presenting the work to the public, via the stage or through a book.

11
The opposition of epic and dramatic lost its rigidity after having long been held to
be irreconcilable. The technical advances permit the stage to incorporate an
element of narrative in its dramatic productions. The possibility of projections, the
greater adaptability of the stage due to mechanization, the film, all completed the
theater’s equipment, and the most important transactions between people could
no longer be shown simply by personifying the motive forces or subjecting the
characters to invisible metaphysical powers.

The stage began to tell a story. The narrator was no longer missing, along with the
fourth wall. Not only did the background adopt an attitude to the events on the
stage – by big screens recalling other simultaneous events elsewhere, by projecting
documents which confirmed or contradicted what the characters said, by concrete
and intelligible figures to accompany abstract conversations. The actors remaining
detached from the character they were playing and clearly inviting criticism of him.

The spectator was no longer in any way allowed to submit to an experience

uncritically (and without practical consequences) by means of simple empathy with
the characters in a play. The production took the subject matter and the incidents
shown and put them through a process of alienation: the alienation that is
necessary to all understanding. Alienation worked against what people took for
granted: in Brecht’s words, what is ‘obvious’, or ‘natural’.

The dramatic theater’s spectator says: I weep when they weep, I laugh when they
laugh. If there is any development it is always steady, never by jerks; the
developments always take place within a definite framework.

A Fictional Action vs. Fictional Mediation

a) Fictional Action: Absolute drama, characters speaking to one another. The

dialogues take place in the present.
b) Fictional Mediation: Salieri is going to be the fictional mediator. He’s going
to refer to past actions and he’s going to comment on them. Past tense is
used.

‘a’ is embedded in ‘b’.

There’s a break in the fourth wall. Salieri is the protagonist.

There are two Salieri’s. The one from 1823 and the Young Salieri from 32 years
before. Through the old Salieri we learn what happened from 1781 to 1791.

Salieri’s first sin is gluttony. Mozart is disrespectful of social conventions of the

Age of Enlightenment.

The seven deadly sins:

12
  Pride: Mozart took pride in his genius
 Greed:
 Gluttony: Salieri’s sweet tooth
 Lust: Mozart’s taste for women; Salieri seducing Katherina Cavallieri.
 Envy: Salieri envies Mozart’s genius which was given by God.
 Wrath: Salieri’s feeling of revenge towards God.
 Sloth

The theme of mediocrity vs talent/genius

Amadeus’ name is symbolic. He’s God’s beloved one. The one that God loves.

Salieri’s spiritual downfall.

Mozart is a threat to the Status Quo.

The greatest irony is that despite all his efforts, Salieri didn’t manage to become
famous through Mozart because no one believed his confession since he had
garnered respect as a famous musician through his lifetime. He witnessed Mozart’s
rise to immortality after his death thanks to his genius.

13