Amadeus (film)

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Template:Short description Template:Use American English Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox film Amadeus is a 1984 American period drama film directed by Miloš Forman. Peter Shaffer adapted it from his 1979 stage play, inspired by Alexander Pushkin's 1830 play Mozart and Salieri. Shaffer described it as a "fantasia on [a real-life] theme", as it imagines a rivalry between two 18th-century Vienna composers, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Tom Hulce) and Antonio Salieri (F. Murray Abraham). Salieri struggles to reconcile his professional admiration and jealous hatred for Mozart, and resolves to ruin Mozart's career as his form of vengeance against God.

Amadeus received its world premiere in Los Angeles on September 6, 1984. It was released by Orion Pictures thirteen days later to widespread critical acclaim and box office success, grossing over $90 million. It was nominated for 53 awards and won 40, including 8 Academy Awards (including Best Picture), four BAFTA Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards (including Best Motion Picture – Drama). Abraham and Hulce were both nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor, with Abraham winning. In 1998, the American Film Institute ranked it 53rd on its 100 Years... 100 Movies list. In 2019, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Plot

{{#invoke:Hatnote|hatnote}} In 1823, aged composer Antonio Salieri attempts suicide and is committed to a psychiatric hospital. He claims that he murdered Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Father Vogler, a young Catholic priest, encourages Salieri to confess his sins before God. After Vogler fails to recognize him, Salieri plays three old melodies to jog his memory. Vogler cannot recognize the first two (which Salieri wrote) but is relieved to recognize the third (Eine kleine Nachtmusik) at once. Salieri peevishly reveals that Mozart wrote it.

Salieri begins his confession by saying that he grew up hearing stories of the child prodigy, Mozart. In his youth, Salieri was in love with music but was forbidden by his father from studying the craft. Salieri proposed that if God made him a famous musician like Mozart, he would give God his faithfulness, chastity, and diligence. Salieri's father soon dies, which he interprets as a sign that God has accepted his vow. By 1774, Salieri becomes court composer to Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II in Vienna. However, he has enough taste to know that Emperor Joseph has no ear for music and that his own compositions will not stand the test of time.

After their first meeting, Salieri understands that Mozart is the better composer but is shocked to learn that Mozart is obscene, immature, and dissolute. He also learns that Mozart never needs to pen a second draft of his music, implying divine inspiration.Template:Efn Salieri cannot fathom why God would choose a reprobate like Mozart as his earthly instrument. Salieri renounces God and vows to take revenge on him by destroying Mozart.

Mozart's work is ahead of its time, and he has trouble finding employment in Vienna. He spends himself into debt, alarming his wife Constanze.Template:Efn Salieri and Mozart bond over their shared contempt for Emperor Joseph's lack of taste, but Mozart is unimpressed by Salieri's populist work, which causes Salieri great pain.

Mozart boldly adapts the subversive play The Marriage of Figaro into a comedic opera. Salieri rejoices, thinking Mozart's career is ruined, but Mozart stuns Salieri by convincing the Emperor to approve the project. However, the Emperor finds the opera boring, and it is cancelled. Eventually, Mozart's father, Leopold, passes away. In response to criticisms and his grief, Mozart composes Don Giovanni, a dark, serious opera. Salieri is entranced but vindictively gets that opera cancelled, too. Renouncing Vienna's artistic establishment, Mozart agrees to write The Magic Flute for a commoners' theater against Constanze's wishes.

After watching Don Giovanni five times, Salieri realizes that the dead commander who accuses Giovanni of sin represents Mozart's inferiority complex towards his father. He concocts a plan to humiliate God. He persuades the unstable Mozart that his late father has risen to commission a Requiem Mass. He plans to kill Mozart, claim the Requiem as his own, and premiere it at Mozart's funeral, forcing God to listen as Salieri is acclaimed. Mozart overworks himself, juggling The Magic Flute and the Requiem. Constanze, who wants him to focus on the Requiem but is fearful of his erratic behaviour, leaves with their son Karl. Although The Magic Flute is a success, the dying Mozart collapses before he can finish the Requiem.

Desperate to complete his plan but also desperate for more of Mozart's heavenly music, Salieri begs the bedridden Mozart to keep writing the Requiem. He takes dictation from Mozart throughout the night, during which he comes to terms with Mozart's superior talent. Mozart thanks Salieri for his friendship, and Salieri admits that Mozart is the greatest composer he knows.

Constanze returns and attempts to kick Salieri out of the apartment before he can steal the Requiem, locking it away.Template:Efn As Salieri protests, they are shocked to discover that Mozart has died from exhaustion. Due to his debts, he is buried in a pauper's grave.

Back in 1823, Vogler is too shaken to absolve Salieri, who surmises that God would rather destroy his beloved Mozart than allow Salieri to share in the smallest part of Mozart's glory. As Salieri is wheeled down a hallway, he proclaims himself the patron saint of mediocrities. He absolves the asylum's other patients of their inadequacies as Mozart's laughter rings in the air.

Cast

Template:Cast listing

Production

Kenneth Branagh wrote in his autobiography Beginning that he was one of the finalists for the role of Mozart, but was dropped from consideration when Forman decided to make the film with an American cast.Template:Sfn Mark Hamill, who replaced Tim Curry as Mozart towards the end of the stage play's Broadway run, read with many actresses auditioning for the part of Mozart's wife Constanze. However, Forman ultimately decided not to cast him due to his association with the character of Luke Skywalker, feeling that audiences would not believe him as the composer.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Similar to Hamill, Forman was not interested in having Curry reprise his stage role of Mozart, but at Shaffer's suggestion, Curry screen tested for the role of Salieri.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Forman invited Hulce to a "get acquainted session" in late 1982.<ref name=Cain>Template:Cite news</ref> However, Hulce was instructed not to study conducting, as the modern discipline is different than in Mozart's time, when conductors primarily kept time and often played along at the keyboard.<ref name=Cain/> Meg Tilly was cast as Mozart's wife Constanze, but she tore a ligament in her leg the day before shooting started.<ref name="Amadeus. DVD. Warner Bros Pictures 2001" /> She was replaced by Elizabeth Berridge. Simon Callow, who played Mozart in the original London stage production of Amadeus, was cast as Emanuel Schikaneder, the librettist of The Magic Flute.

The film was shot on location in Prague for seven months, with primary filming ending in July 1983.<ref name=Cain/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and in Kroměříž at Kroměříž Castle.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Forman was able to shoot scenes in the Estates Theatre in Prague, where Don Giovanni and La clemenza di Tito debuted two centuries before.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Several other scenes were shot at the Barrandov Studios and Invalidovna building, a former hôtel des invalides, built in 1731–1737.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Forman collaborated with American choreographer Twyla Tharp.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Tom Hulce reportedly used John McEnroe's mood swings as a source of inspiration for his portrayal of Mozart's unpredictable genius. He claimed he did not find Mozart's signature laugh until he downed a bottle of whiskey.<ref name="Amadeus. DVD. Warner Bros Pictures 2001"> The Making of Amadeus. DVD. Warner Bros Pictures, 2001. 20 min.</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Reception

Critical reception

Amadeus holds a score of 90% on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes based on 159 reviews, with an average rating of 8.9/10. The site's consensus states: "AmadeusTemplate:' liberties with history may rankle some, but the creative marriage of Miloš Forman and Peter Shaffer yields a divinely diabolical myth of genius and mediocrity, buoyed by inspired casting and Mozart's rapturous music."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Template:Metacritic film prose<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Giving the film four-out-of-four stars, Roger Ebert acknowledged that it was one of the "riskiest gambles a filmmaker has taken in a long time", but added that "there is nothing cheap or unworthy about the approach", and ultimately concluded that it was a "magnificent film, full and tender and funny and charming".<ref name=ebert>Template:Cite web</ref> Ebert later added the film to his Great Movies list.<ref name=ebert/> Peter Travers of People magazine said that "Hulce and Abraham share a dual triumph in a film that stands as a provocative and prodigious achievement."<ref name="travers">Template:Cite journal</ref> Stanley Kauffmann of The New Republic put it on his list of films worth seeing.<ref name="Kauffmann">Template:Cite magazine</ref>

In one negative review, Todd McCarthy of Variety said that despite "great material and themes to work with, and such top talent involved," the "stature and power the work possessed onstage have been noticeably diminished" in the film adaptation.<ref name="McCarthy">Template:Cite web</ref> The film's many historical inaccuracies have attracted criticism from music historians.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=guardian>Template:Cite web</ref>

Box office

The film grossed $52 million in the United States and Canada<ref name="Numbers"/> and by November 1985, while still in theatres overseas, had grossed over $90 million worldwide to date.<ref name=ww>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Accolades

The film was nominated for eleven Academy Awards, winning eight (including Best Picture).<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> At the end of the Oscar ceremony, Laurence Olivier came on stage to present the Oscar for Best Picture. As Olivier thanked the academy for inviting him, he was already opening the envelope. Instead of announcing the nominees, he simply read, "The winner for this is Amadeus." An AMPAS official quickly went onstage to confirm the winner and signaled that all was well before Olivier then presented the award to producer Saul Zaentz. Olivier (in his 78th year) had been ill for many years, and it was because of mild dementia that he forgot to read the nominees.<ref>Olivier, by Terry Coleman, 2005, p. 484</ref> Zaentz then thanked Olivier, saying it was an honor to receive the award from him,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> before mentioning the other nominees in his acceptance speech: The Killing Fields, A Passage to India, Places in the Heart and A Soldier's Story. Maurice Jarre won Best Original Music Score for his scoring of A Passage to India. In his acceptance speech for the award, Jarre remarked "I was lucky Mozart was not eligible this year".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> It was the only occurrence in which the presenter announced the winner instead of the nominees in the ceremony, until the 96th Academy Awards.Template:Cn

The film along with The English Patient, The Hurt Locker, The Artist, and Birdman are the only Best Picture winners never to enter the weekend box office top 5 after rankings began being recorded in 1982.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The film peaked at No. 6 during its 8th weekend in theaters. Saul Zaentz produced both Amadeus and The English Patient.

Award Category Nominee(s) Result Ref.
Academy Awards Best Picture Saul Zaentz Template:Won <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Best Director Miloš Forman Template:Won
Best Actor F. Murray Abraham Template:Won
Tom Hulce Template:Nom
Best Screenplay – Based on Material from Another Medium Peter Shaffer Template:Won
Best Art Direction Art Direction: Patrizia von Brandenstein;
Set Decoration: Karel Černý
Template:Won
Best Cinematography Miroslav Ondříček Template:Nom
Best Costume Design Theodor Pištěk Template:Won
Best Film Editing Nena Danevic and Michael Chandler Template:Nom
Best Makeup Dick Smith and Paul LeBlanc Template:Won
Best Sound Mark Berger, Tom Scott, Todd Boekelheide, and Christopher Newman Template:Won
Amanda Awards Best Foreign Feature Film Miloš Forman Template:Won
American Cinema Editors Awards Best Edited Feature Film Nena Danevic and Michael Chandley Template:Won Template:Sfn
American Film Institute AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies Template:Draw <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Artios Awards Outstanding Achievement in Feature Film Casting Mary Goldberg Template:Won <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
British Academy Film Awards Best Film Saul Zaentz and Miloš Forman Template:Nom <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Best Actor in a Leading Role F Murray Abraham Template:Nom
Best Adapted Screenplay Peter Shaffer Template:Nom
Best Cinematography Miroslav Ondříček Template:Won
Best Costume Design Theodor Pištěk Template:Nom
Best Editing Nena Danevic and Michael Chandler Template:Won
Best Make-Up Artist Paul LeBlanc and Dick Smith Template:Won
Best Production Design Patrizia von Brandstein Template:Nom
Best Sound John Nutt, Christopher Newman, and Mark Berger Template:Won
British Society of Cinematographers Awards Best Cinematography in a Theatrical Feature Film Miroslav Ondrícek Template:Nom <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
César Awards Best Foreign Film Template:Won <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
David di Donatello Awards Best Foreign Film Miloš Forman Template:Won
Best Foreign Director Template:Won
Best Foreign Actor Tom Hulce Template:Won
Directors Guild of America Awards Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures Miloš Forman Template:Won <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
DVD Exclusive Awards Original Retrospective Documentary, Library Release Paul Hemstreet, Bill Jersey, and Charles Kiselyak Template:Nom
Best Audio Commentary, Library Release Miloš Forman and Peter Shaffer Template:Nom
Golden Globe Awards Best Motion Picture – Drama Template:Won <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama F. Murray Abraham Template:Won
Tom Hulce Template:Nom
Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture Jeffrey Jones Template:Nom
Best Director – Motion Picture Miloš Forman Template:Won
Best Screenplay – Motion Picture Peter Shaffer Template:Won
Golden Screen Awards Template:Won
Japan Academy Film Prize Best Foreign Language Film Template:Won
Joseph Plateau Awards Best Film Template:Won
Best Director Miloš Forman Template:Won
Best Artistic Contribution Template:Won
Jussi Awards Best Foreign Filmmaker Miloš Forman Template:Won
Kansas City Film Critics Circle Awards Best Actor F. Murray Abraham Template:Won <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Kinema Junpo Awards Best Foreign Language Film Miloš Forman Template:Won
Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards Best Picture Template:Won <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Best Director Miloš Forman Template:Won
Best Actor F. Murray Abraham Template:WonTemplate:Efn
Best Screenplay Peter Shaffer Template:Won
Best Music Score Wolfgang Amadeus MozartTemplate:Efn Template:Runner-up
Nastro d'Argento Best Foreign Director Miloš Forman Template:Won
Best Foreign Actor Tom Hulce Template:Won
National Film Preservation Board National Film Registry Template:Won <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Online Film & Television Association Awards Film Hall of Fame: Productions Template:Won <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Robert Awards Best Foreign Film Miloš Forman Template:Won
Turkish Film Critics Association Awards Best Foreign Film Template:Won

Historicity

Template:Main From the beginning, writer Peter Shaffer and director Miloš Forman both were open about their desire to create entertaining drama only loosely based on reality. Forman admitted that neither the play nor the film was ever "intended to be a documentary", calling the film a "fantasia on the theme of Mozart and Salieri".<ref name="bbc">Template:Cite web</ref> The idea of animosity between Mozart and Salieri was popularized by Alexander Pushkin in his 1830 play Mozart and Salieri, where Salieri murders Mozart on stage. The play was made into the 1897 opera Mozart and Salieri by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov,<ref name="bbc" /> which in turn had its first screen adaptation by silent-film director Victor Tourjansky in 1914.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In real life, Salieri and Mozart "were in constant contact" during their years in the Vienna music scene and may even have been friends,<ref name=":4">Template:Cite magazine</ref> although they were also professional rivals.<ref name=":5">Template:Cite news</ref> The claim that Salieri killed Mozart has been generally debunked; in 1981, Harold C. Schonberg wrote that "medical men who have studied the reports of Mozart's final illness [were] almost unanimous in saying that Mozart died of kidney failure."<ref name=":5" /> In 1785, Mozart and Salieri co-wrote the cantata Per la ricuperata salute di Ofelia, which was rediscovered many years after the film's release; Mozart scholar Ulrich Leisinger admitted that the piece was "not great".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Salieri "frequently conducted Mozart's work"<ref name=":6">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=":4" /> and gave Mozart's son music lessons after Mozart's death.<ref name=":7">Template:Cite web</ref> In addition, Alex Ross wrote that Mozart and Salieri's relationship improved after the death of Emperor Joseph II, a supporter of Salieri.<ref name=":4" /> Schonberg said that "we will never know ... the exact nature of the relationship between the two men."<ref name=":5" />

However, the film's narrative was indirectly inspired by real-life rumors about Salieri killing Mozart. These rumors were prevalent enough that Rossini joked about them to Salieri's face when meeting the man in 1822.<ref name=":6" /> It was said that Salieri confessed to the murder in 1823,<ref name=":6" /> shortly before his death and the same year he attempted suicide,<ref name=":5" /> although the claim is generally dismissed as either pure rumor or "the ramblings of a man suffering from dementia",<ref name=":8">Template:Cite web</ref> and Ignaz Moscheles wrote that Salieri personally denied the rumor to him on his hospital deathbed.<ref name=":5" /> In 1824, an anonymous detractor passed out leaflets at a Beethoven performance repeating this claim.<ref name=":7" />

The less controversial claim—that Salieri saw Mozart as a competitor—has more historical support. In a biography published shortly after Salieri's death, which was purportedly based on Salieri's now-lost draft autobiography,<ref name=":4" /> Ignaz von Mosel wrote that Salieri respected Mozart, but was jealous of him.<ref name=":5" /> Salieri also did, in fact, criticize Mozart's dissipated lifestyle.<ref name=":4" /> Harold Schonberg noted that although Salieri had a reputation for being generous to composers who were down on their luck, he never helped Mozart.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Several members of the Mozart family thought that Salieri used his political clout to minimize his professional rival, including Leopold Mozart (who wrote that "Salieri and all his supporters" would "move heaven and earth to ruin [The Marriage of Figaro]"),<ref name=":4" /> Constanze Mozart (who claimed that her husband sometimes doubted Salieri's intentions towards him),<ref name=":8" /> and possibly even Mozart himself (he privately complained to his father about the Italians' excessive influence on the Austrian music industry).<ref name=":6" /> Constanze also boasted that Salieri rejected da Ponte's libretto for Così fan tutte, only for Mozart to turn it into a well-regarded opera.<ref name=":6" /> Moscheles agreed that his friend Salieri's "intrigues" had hampered Mozart's career.<ref name=":5" /> However, Alex Ross cautioned that "evidence for Salieri's supposed machinations against Mozart is scant" and that Mozart had a "tendency to see plots arrayed against him".<ref name=":4" />

Another significant departure in the film is the portrayal of Salieri as a pious loner trapped in a vow of chastity, when in reality he was a married family man with eight children and at least one mistress.<ref name="guardian" />

Mozart was indeed commissioned to compose a Requiem Mass by an anonymous benefactor. In reality, the patron turned out to be Count Franz von Walsegg, who was grieving after the death of his wife.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Director's cut

Amadeus premiered in 1984 with an MPAA rating of PG and a running time of 161 minutes. In 2002, director Miloš Forman assembled an R-rated version (marketed as the "Director's Cut") with nearly 20 minutes of restored footage.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> From 2002 to 2025, the Director's Cut was the only widely available release.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref> A restoration of the version released in theaters (marketed as the "Theatrical Cut") was released in 2025.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":3">Template:Cite web</ref>

It is not clear whether Forman's Director's Cut represents his actual artistic vision. Forman defended the 20 minutes of cuts in his 1993 autobiography Turnaround,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and repeated his defense in the 1995 supplemental material for Pioneer's deluxe LaserDisc. The Director's Cut has come under severe criticism, in part because it displaced the original theatrical edition, instead of complementing it. Rian Johnson argued that the Director's Cut "is bizarrely a sort of inverse master class in editing: It shows exactly why the cuts were made in the first place & how they made the film work."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Roger Ebert noted that the cut was part of a broader wave of directors' cuts on home video, which he characterized as a "mixed blessing."<ref name=":1">Template:Cite web</ref> The A.V. Club's Tasha Robinson noted that most of the additional sequences were either redundant or unnecessary, and broke up the "lively flow between scenes" that marked the theatrical edition's "superb" editing."<ref name=":2">Template:Cite web</ref>

On the other hand, critics have recognized the merits of some of the additional scenes. Ebert and Robinson agreed that the added scenes better explained Constanze's hatred for Salieri, although Robinson questioned whether that subplot actually required a scene with the character topless.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /> Jordan Hoffmann (Foreign Policy) added that the subplot featuring Christine Ebersole as a Salieri-obsessed singer who has sex with Mozart, was "splendid."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

More broadly, while promoting the Director's Cut, Forman argued that the unlimited running time of home video provided a better environment for the deleted scenes:

When you finish a film, before the first paying audience sees it, you don't have any idea. You don't know if you made a success or a flop when it comes to the box office. And in the '80s, with MTV on the scene, we are having a three-hour film about classical music, with long names and wigs and costumes. Don't forget that no major studio wanted to finance the film, for these reasons. So we said, "Well, we don't want to be pushing the audience's patience too far". Whatever was not directly connected to the plot, I just cut it out. But it was a mutual decision [to limit the running time]. I wanted the best life for the film myself... Well, once we are re-releasing it on DVD, it doesn't matter if it is two hours and 40 minutes long, or three hours long. So why don't we do the version as it was written in the script?<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

In 2024, Saul Zaentz Co. announced that in conjunction with the Academy Film Archive and Teatro Della Pace Film, it had completed a 4K restoration of the theatrical version of Amadeus, to celebrate the film's 40th anniversary. Restorers noted that Paul Zaentz, Saul's nephew and successor, personally preferred the Theatrical Cut to the Director's Cut.<ref name=":3" /> The distributors issued an Ultra-HD Blu-ray of the restored Theatrical Cut on February 25, 2025.<ref name=":3" />

Music

File:Amadeus - Live in Toronto - 20190222A.jpg
Amadeus music performed live in-sync with the movie by an orchestra and choir at Meridian Hall in Toronto

Film credits

Original soundtrack recording

The soundtrack album<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> reached No. 1 in the Billboard Classical Albums Chart, No. 56 in the Billboard Popular Albums Chart, has sold over 6.5 million copies and received thirteen gold discs, making it one of the most popular classical music recordings of all time.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It won the Grammy Award for Best Classical Album in 1984.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

  • Disc 1
  1. Mozart: Symphony No. 25 in G minor, K. 183, 1st movement
  2. Giovanni Battista Pergolesi: Stabat Mater: "Quando corpus morietur" and "Amen"
  3. Early 18th Century Gypsy Music: Bubak and Hungaricus
  4. Mozart: Serenade for Winds in B-flat major, K. 361, 3rd movement
  5. Mozart: The Abduction from the Seraglio, K. 384, Turkish Finale
  6. Mozart: Symphony No. 29 in A major, K. 201, 1st movement
  7. Mozart: Concerto for Two Pianos in E-flat major, K. 365, 3rd movement
  8. Mozart: Great Mass in C minor, K. 427, Kyrie
  9. Mozart: Symphonie Concertante in E-flat major, K. 364, 1st movement
  • Disc 2
  1. Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 22 in E-flat major, K. 482, 3rd movement
  2. Mozart: The Marriage of Figaro, K. 492, Act III, "Ecco la Marcia"
  3. Mozart: The Marriage of Figaro, K. 492, Act IV, "Ah, tutti contenti"
  4. Mozart: Don Giovanni, K. 527, Act II, Commendatore scene
  5. Mozart: Zaide, K. 344, Aria, "Ruhe sanft"
  6. Mozart: Requiem, K. 626, Introitus (orchestral introduction)
  7. Mozart: Requiem, K. 626, Dies irae
  8. Mozart: Requiem, K. 626, Rex tremendae majestatis
  9. Mozart: Requiem, K. 626, Confutatis
  10. Mozart: Requiem, K. 626, Lacrimosa
  11. Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466, 2nd movement

All tracks on the album were performed specifically for the film. According to the film commentary by Forman and Schaffer, Marriner agreed to score the film if Mozart's music was completely unchanged from the original scores. Marriner did add some notes to Salieri's music that are noticeable at the beginning of the film, as Salieri begins his confession.

The aria "Ruhe sanft" from the opera Zaide does not appear in the film.

Charts

Template:Col-begin Template:Col-2

Weekly charts

Template:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chart
Chart (1985–2006) Peak
position
Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)Template:Sfn 10
European Albums (Eurotipsheet)<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> 21
Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> 30

Template:Col-2

Year-end charts

Chart (1985) Position
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 39

Template:Col-end

More Music from the Original Soundtrack

In 1985, an additional album with the title More Music from the Original Soundtrack of the Film Amadeus was issued containing further selections of music that were not included in the original soundtrack release.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

  1. Mozart: The Magic Flute, K. 620, Overture
  2. Mozart: The Magic Flute, K. 620, act 2, Queen of the Night aria
  3. Mozart: Masonic Funeral Music, K. 477
  4. Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466, 1st movement
  5. Antonio Salieri: Axur, re d'Ormus, Finale
  6. Mozart: Eine kleine Nachtmusik (Serenade No. 13 for Strings in G major), K. 525, 1st movement, arranged for woodwind octet by Graham Sheen
  7. Mozart: Concerto for Flute and Harp in C major, K. 299, 2nd movement
  8. Mozart: Six German Dances (Nos. 1–3), K. 509
  9. Giuseppe Giordani: "Caro mio ben"
  10. Mozart: The Abduction from the Seraglio, K. 384, Chorus of the Janissaries (Arr.) and "Ich möchte wohl der Kaiser sein" ("Ein deutsches Kriegslied"), K. 539 (Arr.)

The Masonic Funeral Music was originally intended to play over the closing credits, but was replaced in the film by the second movement of the Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor<ref> More Music from the Original Soundtrack of the Film Amadeus, album liner notes</ref> (included on the Original Soundtrack Recording).

Director's Cut soundtrack

In 2002, to coincide with the release of the Director's Cut of the film, the soundtrack was remastered with 24-bit encoding and reissued with the title Special Edition: The Director's Cut – Newly Remastered Original Soundtrack Recording on two 24-karat gold CDs.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It contains most of the music from the previous two releases, but with the following differences.

The following pieces were added for this release:

The following pieces, previously released on More Music from the Original Soundtrack of the Film Amadeus, were not included:

Legacy

A TV series adaptation of the original Shaffer play, called Amadeus, starring Will Sharpe and Paul Bettany was filmed in 2024 and is scheduled to air on Sky TV.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The pink wig worn by Mozart is in the permanent exhibition of the Acadian Museum at the University of Moncton. The wig was created by Paul LeBlanc, who won an Oscar for Best Makeup and Hairstyling for this movie in 1985.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Notes

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References

Template:Reflist

Works cited

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