On 26 Mar 2007 at 14:40, Daniel Wolf wrote: > I think it may say something about the real state of affairs in > education in the humanties today that the film _Amadeus_, even in a > civil discussion among musicians, is immediately labeled a "film about > Mozart", when it is nothing of the sort. > > Both the stage play and the film-- and the title is the giveaway -- is > a study in the love of God, loving God, and of a creator's unequal and > inexplicable assignments of worldly gifts.
That is certainly true, but, having seen both the play and the movie, it is definitely the case that them movie skewed much more towards portraying Mozart than the play does, which is much, much more centered on Salieri's inner struggles. I felt the movie was a rather unsuccessful adaptation of the play, as the concentration on Mozart obscured the underlying point of the whole endeavor. However, I recently watched Amadeus again for the first time since it was originally released, and came away not feeling as much that it was so heavily centered on Mozart. This might be because I'm now nearly 25 years away from the point at which I saw the play. > The play and film have > indeed instrumentalised aspects of some historical figures and events > -- throwing in a number of fictional elements for good measure -- but > an educated audience should be able to figure that out. > > However, I honestly don't know what is more alarming: the broad public > misperception of the work, or the persistent complaints from musicians > and musical academics about the play and film for lack of historical > accuracy, a standard that the author (and, subsequently, filmmakers) > had no interest in meeting. It's tough to justify some of the departures from history in the film that would have made not difference (such as Mozart's death occurring during daytime, instead of c. 1am), but I would agree the main plot points are merely a device to allow Shaffer to tell his story, and shouldn't be criticized for departing from accurate representation of history. -- David W. Fenton http://dfenton.com David Fenton Associates http://dfenton.com/DFA/ _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
