Summary
- Salieri's vow of chastity was an embellishment in Amadeus - he married and had children in real life.
- Mozart's heavy drinking in the film is exaggerated - no evidence he was an alcoholic in reality.
- Salieri wasn't manipulative towards the Emperor in real life - he earned his position through talent.
Based on a beloved stage play and the winner of multiple Academy Awards, Amadeus is one of the most successful and beloved films of all time, but how accurate is Amadeus? As with most biopics, movies often take true-life stories and add embellishments, increasing the film's dramatic elements. These dramatizations are often either heightened versions of events that happened, or they are completely made up to add to the dramatic moments of the finished movie. This Miloš Forman movie is no different.
Amadeus is about the rivalry between Antonio Salieri and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, but not everything in the running time really happened concerning the two lead characters. Despite the historical inaccuracies, Amadeus earned 11 Oscar nominations and won eight of them, including Best Picture, Best Actor (F. Murray Abraham as Salleri), and Best Director. Tom Hulce, who played Mozart, was also nominated for Best Actor. It was also added to the National Film Registry, showing adding drama never hurts a biopic like Amadeus.
Amadeus ia available to watch on AppleTV.
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Salieri Took A Vow Of Chastity
Antonio Salieri's vow of chastity is the easiest moment in Amadeus to debunk. However, even though it is not true, it is a moment that the film embellishes. There is no way to know exactly what Salieri promised his God, but he was not chaste or celibate. In fact, Antonio Salieri married and had children, and there are even rumors that he had a supposed affair with Catrina Cavalleri. He also suffered through tragedies, as his only son died in 1805 and his wife died in 1807, both passing before he died years later in 1825.
The chastity storyline was likely done to increase the fictional Salieri's devotion to composing great music, by presenting the fact that he's willing to forsake his desires of the flesh. However, in real life, a wife and kids were hard evidence against this part of the Amadeus plot. In all, Salieiri and his wife had eight children, seven of them daughters.
Mozart's Heavy Drinking
While it's true that Mozart liked to have a good time, was bad with money, and proved to be immature and strange, evidence shows that the composer was not an alcoholic, as Amadeus claimed. In the film, Mozart is always drinking alcohol. Bottles of various substances are often scattered about his house and workspace, but this is all a highly romanticized image. Though it has been said Mozart favored punch, as was customary during the period, there is little evidence he was a heavy drinker.
With his gift for composing and creating beautiful music uninhibited, it's unlikely Mozart completed his work inebriated or under the influence. Dr Jonathan Noble published a book called That Jealous Demon: My Wretched Health and wrote, "There is 'no way you can go around composing operas, symphonies or string quartets' if you are a true alcoholic." He wrote that there is no evidence Mozart, Schubert, Brahms or Beethoven had problems with alcohol (via Daily Mail).