WATCH ALONG: Amadeus

BTW, modern opinion is that Mozart died of natural causes, perhaps a subdural hemama, or else a disease perhaps streptocaccal. . It has been noted that Mozart tended to take a lot of medicine when he was ill, and that one of them had the element antimony, which is poisonous. It is known that he was treated with a major bloodletting the day before his death. Depsite what some nave reported Salieri to have ssaid aftr Salieri's nervour breakdowe, earlier he denied such rumors and there is no evidence. Finally, Constanze's recollection is that Mozart did not complain of overwork and actually looked forward and was in good spirits at the prospect of writing a major pieice of church music.

Joseph Stevenson

Mozart, by contrast, took the dangerous path of becoming one the first free-lance musician-composers. He quitt his steady job because his boss, an Archbishop, was a prime a-hole. Mozart then lived from gig to gig. Knowing that he could always get concert dates and fees for performances, this was not so drastic, or should not have been. But there were limitations that hampered Mozart's plans. Understand the way the concert season worked. (1) No concerts or opera during the summer because no air conditioning in the venues. 2). No concerts or opera during pre-Easter Lent or pre-Christmas Advent. These seasons were "too holy" for having fun. So was Sunday major feast days.. So figure that with 90 days of summer and around 100 holy days, this leaves only about 160 days for public music. Even so, this should have been enough, provided Mozart was careful about his money. But he was not. (One of his major expenses was that when his wife got ill he sent her off to the best spa.) And then came two train wrecks. First there was a war. Nobilemen and other leaders, many of them, jwant off to join their military units, cutting down the audience. Those who didn't were aware that withe soldiers moving around over Eurorp, epidemics usually followed, and usually struck the cities worst. So a lot of the people who could fled to their country estates. And then: calamity. The Emperor died. and the mourning period closed the theaters in 1790. Now, there was commememorative and funeral music to be written for events connected with the death and the crowning of the next emperor.. Here is where Salieri came in, and perhaps why, in his dementia, the aged Salieri, blamed himself for Mozart's bad situation and death: Salieri had much more influence at court, and steered some of the biggest composing and performing jobs in his favor, which means getting his own star pupil to get the jobs instead of Mozart. After all,i if you are going go be a teacher, best to demonstarate the studying with you pays off. Besides, this star pupil was the young Ludwig van Beethoven. It's not as if Salieri promoted some shady hack over Mozart! Mozart famously borrowed money often from his Freemason brothers. We have his pathetic begging letters. But closer examination shows that he was making some progress paying them off and improving his situation in the last year or so of his life. He accepted a commission to write a large-scale opera for Prague, and then a German opera in popular style, "Thej Magic Flute." this was produced at a theaterin the suburbs, that catered to ordinary people rather then aristocracy. These were people who had to stay around while their "betters" fled. So, was Mozart the loon as shown in the film. I don't think he was as silly as all that. There are references to a distinctive laugh, and he could be touchy. (The "No, Sire, just the right number of notes" remark seems to be historical.). But in the main he know how to conduct himself amidst nobility and royalty Personally, he was fond of dirty jokes. Some of his private letters are pretty crude, and revolve aorund potty humor. He wrote a choral piece called "Lick my A--." He had a weird upbrininging: His father put him and his sister to work as a family musical act and toured him all around Europe. Nothing normal about it. He was the leading star of his age group, pretty much the Michael Jackson of his time. And like M.J., he grew up a bit weird. Just how looneyh,we don't really know, but enough that Peter Schaeffer could use him, twisting his personality to make him appear to be a person who did not deserve God's favor. Which is enough to present the notion that God is a capricious, uncaring, diety rather than the loving father of Christian belief. Or else non-existent.

Joseph Stevenson

Salieri did Mozart some favors, although it would have been hard for any musician to avoid feeling jealous over Mozart's amazing talent. When Salieri was old and demented, he sometimes claimed to have been responsible for Mozart's death. This started the legend that led to Amadeus. Russian autbhor Pushkin around 1840 (fifty years ater Mozart's death) wrote a play called Mozart and Salieri, which was made into an opera. This apparently kicked off the legend of great rivalry. (Strangely Salieri wrote an opera called "The School of Jealousy." Salieri was a compeitor, and by golly he competed. Salieri, an Italian, catered to a group of fans that liked ITALIAN music and opera over Austro-German, and Mozart was Austrian. Salieri was more in favor with the Imperial Court than Mozart, because Salieri played that game better. He was able to prosper on teaching, and working for the upper/upper class.

Joseph Stevenson

There is no evidence that Salieri had anything to do with Mozart having to slave away on his deathbed writing the Requiem. The mysterious stranger who commissioned was, I think, a man named Puchberg, who wanted to pass it off as his own, and so wanted Mozart to write it secretly. (In the end, Mozart did not finish it, and his widow had someone else do the unfinished parts. Salieri was not at all the hack composer he is portrayed as in the playfilm. He was a decent composer, though, of course, no one alive at the time could match the talents of the five greatest composers of Salieri's lifetime: Mozart, F.J. Haydn, Beethoven, and two of the Bach brothers.

Joseph Stevenson

As a serious classical movie maven, I must urge viewers NEVER to take anything in Amadeus as historically true. The playwright (Peter Schaeffer) wrote it as a subversive anti-religious picture: If God bestows talents on those he blesses (and the word "Amadeus" literally means "Loved by God"), how did it happen that the more pious of the two antagonists got shafted when the musical talent was handed out? So it served his purpose to portray the characters in the way he did. Here are some facts:

Joseph Stevenson

I really like this film, and I hadn't seen it in quite some time. When I was young it introduced me to Mozart, but also to Salieri's work as well. Was his character a madman? I don't think so. I think he was just in existential pain. Becoming the voice of "mediocrity", or more clearly to the 90 percent of us who may not see our efforts rewarded in our own lifetimes, is the one tiny victory he can hold on to as his raison d'etre. But, that's just one opinion.

Kristofer Foster

Had to wait a while to get to this since it's so long, but wasn't gonna miss it. I watch this movie about once a year. One of my all time favorites. And I feel like Salieri did kill Mozart because he kept him working through the night while horribly ill. He pushed him. And F. Murray Abraham so deserved that Oscar for playing Salieri. Deliciously evil character that wanted to be so good.

Robert Reichle

It is coming. Ashleigh is keeping us in suspense!

Mark Sylvester

Anybody else getting a BUNCH of hiss from Ashleigh's videos?

Thomas Yanez

Never mind, answered that question two seconds on Hahaha

ChickensAreRacist

Did you watch directors cut or regular version? Going to be started soon and actually own this one! :)

ChickensAreRacist

Ashleigh, that was cool! I love this movie. I’ve been playing guitar for over 30 years. I like all kinds of music from medieval to electronic. Maybe that’s why I love Amadeus so much. It got me into classical music when I was about 13.

C. A.

This was also my first time seeing the movie. I enjoyed it, but like you, probably wouldn't watch it again, at least any time soon. I kept waiting for the song "Rock Me Amadeus" by Falco to be played lol

Thomas Ivie

So the scenes with Salieri asking Mozarts wife to come back for a "favor" later that night and the scene where he tutors the dogs are not in the original movie. I always found this movie very theological. It does ask very interesting questions about God. Also this movie was nominated for 11 Acadamy Awards winning 8, including the big 4. Picture, Director, Actor, and screenplay. When it comes to his laugh i found this. It has been claimed that the concept for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's bizarre laugh was taken from "references in letters written about him by two women who met him", that describe him as laughing in "an infectious giddy" which sounds "like metal scraping glass".

Bleedingreen

There's a great app called JustWatch that'll tell you where you can stream/rent/buy movies at different qualities (SD/HD/4K). It can save you money because sometimes certain streaming rental platforms are cheaper than others.

Thomas Ivie

Not a fan of this film myself.

Michael Johnson

Lye. To help decompose and lessen some of the stink.

I thought big trouble in little China was soon?

Michael Johnson

Ooo. I own this one! The director's cut is overly long, and in my Opinion makes the experience worse. Hope you liked it!

Mark Finley

2nd in a row I own! Keep em comin! 🤘🏻🐈🎥

Brandon Portell