The Reality of Amadeus

The movie "Amadeus" portrays Mozart's and Salieri's relationship as one of obsession and envy. Salieri is a court composer, a few years later older than Mozart; Mozart is a famous composer and performer, who is extremely immature. Salieri becomes so jealous of Mozart that he devises a plan to destroy Mozart: He dresses in all black, including a mask, and tells Mozart he must finish an opera, which winds up being "The Magic Flute", or he will not give him money to buy the alchohol that he is essentially addicted to. It ends up killing Mozart, and Salieri, many years later tries to kill himself, and is turned in to a mental institution until he dies.

In reality, however, Mozart and Salieri were aquaintances in good standing with one another, possibly even friends. Salieri was even a music teacher for one of Mozart's sons. Also, Mozart was ill for much of his life, and perished from, most scholars believe, a secondary flare up of an inflammatory disease, though he strongly believed he was poisoned in his last days. Salieri spent his final days still composing music for the court, and died peacefully.