30 pages • 1 hour read
Peter ShafferAmadeus
Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1979A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
The Venticelli
Since the play has been famously criticized for inventing history, the Venticelli serve as a representation of this revisionism as the voices of public gossip. As the play’s narrator, Salieri tells his own version of history. Through his perspective, certain people, such as his wife and Katherina Cavalieri, are mute and have no voice. Others, such as Mozart and Constanze, are exaggeratedly obnoxious. The Venticelli step in to temper and refute Salieri’s account. They seem to have complete access to the entire story, and they disseminate speculation and public understanding of the events. At the end of the play, when Salieri attempts suicide, they Venticelli take over the story, telling the audience that not only was Salieri’s suicide unsuccessful but so was his attempt to take credit for Mozart’s death.
Structurally, the play mimics the drama of opera, and the Venticelli serve as the chorus. The job of the chorus is both to participate as actors in the telling of the story and to stand back and comment on the action. They inform the audience, but also stand in for the voice of an informed audience onstage. Stylistically, the presence of the Venticelli emphasizes that the story is dramatized and fictionalized rather than purporting to be an accurate portrayal of historical events. They ask the central question as to whether or not Salieri murdered Mozart, allow Salieri to answer it, and then correct his claims. As the voices of gossip, the Venticelli are inflammatory and share unsubstantiated rumors, simultaneously heightening the drama of the events onstage.
Music
Amadeus is a play about both music and the people behind the music that remains preserved throughout history. The play draws a line between popular taste and canonical art that endures the test of time and represents the idea of an artist who is subject to the whims of the social machine. Salieri, a trained musician and composer, identifies immediately the innovative and ingenious quality of Mozart’s work. However, Salieri seems to be the only person in the play with both the ability to recognize musical genius and the social status to affect Mozart’s career. The emperor, who enjoys music and commissions works from popular composers for his own entertainment, seems to have very little understanding of music. He criticizes Mozart’s opera as having too many notes, and his arbitrary ban on ballets in operas is a matter of personal taste rather than musical integrity.
While Salieri does what he can to prevent Mozart’s work from reaching wide audiences, the role of music in structure of the play itself suggests that true artistry will transcend cultural caprice. Mozart’s compositions are woven into the text, illustrating the composer’s genius. The use of Mozart’s works is ironic, considering that the central narrative of the play is about a man who devotes his life to trying to stifle them. Additionally, the music haunts Salieri because even though he expresses no remorse for the way he treated the young composer, it is ever-present in his memory because he knows that the work is superior—even preternaturally good. And unfortunately for Salieri, the play suggests that such musical talent cannot be taught.
Fathers
The play first mentions Mozart’s father, Leopold Mozart, in reference to the young Mozart’s relationship with Constanze. While Constanze’s mother, Mozart’s landlady, encourages them to wed, Mozart’s father refuses to give his blessing. When Salieri hears that the couple is engaged and waiting for Leopold Mozart’s approval, he advises Mozart to marry her anyways since he loves her. This moment foreshadows the eventual dynamic in which Salieri, who refers to Mozart insultingly as a child, begins to masquerade as a father figure to the younger composer. Salieri gains Mozart’s trust while simultaneously using their relationship to destroy his career. Leopold Mozart maintains a hold on his son, who fears his father’s disapproval when he doesn’t land the job teaching the princess. Mozart’s father offers and withdraws support for his son based on whether or not he approves of Mozart’s actions.
Mozart’s relationship to his father changes suddenly when, immediately after he angrily disavows him, the Venticelli enter to announce that Leopold Mozart has died. Mozart is quickly overcome with guilt, but then accepts Salieri’s comforting words, embraces him, and calls him Papa. Mozart memorializes his dead father as the Ghost Father in his opera Don Giovanni, an evil, accusatory figure that is cast into hell. However, Mozart still holds the memory of his father up, lending credence to Leopold’s cruel prediction that Mozart and Constanze would be poor and unhappy, and becoming enraged when Constanze burns his father’s letters for heat and admits that she hates him. At the end of his life, Mozart becomes a father himself but dies. And just as Mozart was “raised” by Salieri in the absence of a loving father, Mozart’s son is raised by Constanze’s next husband. Just before he dies, Mozart learns that Salieri also betrayed him, a fact that perhaps pushes him over the edge and into death.
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By Peter Shaffer
