Always hard for me to get it right - The Different Versions of Peter Shaffer's Amadeus

Contents

1. Introduction

2. The Characters
2.1. Antonio Salieri
2.2. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

3. The ‘Final Encounter’ and its Versions
3.1. 1979/80: The Original Version
3.2. 1981: The Revised Version
3.3. 1998/1999: Taking It up again

4. Conclusion

Bibliography

1. Introduction

Indeed, sometimes I wonder at those writers who display no desire to alter anything when work is revived. And sometimes, too, I envy their seeming certitude – or even their indifference, which may be a form of instinctive wisdom! ^[1]

Peter Shaffer is certainly none of those writers who do not feel the desire to alter their work. There are six different versions of his play Amadeus which have been produced on stage and screen since 1979, when Amadeus made its first appearance in the National Theatre of Great Britain, London. The latest version of Shaffer’s play was published in 1999, after being revived and staged in London and New York.

Writing and, mainly, re-writing Amadeus has been a process of 20 years in which Shaffer changed not only some aspects of the plot but in the first place of characters and their meaning. The most prominent alternations can be seen at the end of the second act, the final confrontation of the two main characters, Antonio Salieri and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It is especially this scene of their last meeting that Shaffer felt hard […] to get right ^[2], because he considered it as the play’s structural climax whereas the historical truth – Salieri survived Mozart 34 years, retired, replaced and essentially rejected ^[3] - was anticlimactic.

This essay shall investigate the alternations of the last confrontation between the two characters and their impact on one of the major motifs of the play, Salieri’s struggle with God. Therefore, the 1979 original version (published 1980) of Amadeus, the 1981 revised version, which has long been the basis for all presentations around the world, and the recently published 1999 version will be analyzed and compared. The 1984 film version, directed by Milos Forman, will not be taken into considerations because theatre and film are very different forms of art. They work with different techniques and offer different opportunities of presentation. There are losts of changes made for the movie that meet with the conception of presenting a story on screen. A comparison of play and film that does justice to both forms is impossible within in the scope of this essay.^[4] The 1997 version will be excluded as well because it is merely a provisional result for the following ones. The versions of 1998 and 1999 will be treated as a single one because there are only slight differences between them.

The basis for the discussion of Salieri’s and Mozart’s last meeting will be the analyses of the figures’ characteristics that all versions have in common. For the comparison of the different Amadeus versions not only the texts but also Shaffer’s reflections on them, Amadeus: The Final Encounter, will serve as a source.

2. The Characters

2.1. Antonio Salieri

Although the title of the play is Amadeus, the Italian composer Antonio Salieri is the character in the centre of Shaffer’s play. But Salieri is more than just a main character. He also functions as the ‘narrator’ of the subplot, the events at the Viennese court in the 18th century. Therefore, these events shown on stage are seen through Salieri’s eyes, i.e. the presentation of events and characters are subjective.

The audience gets to know two Salieris: The young Court Composer of Joseph II and the old man, sitting in his apartment a few hours before committing suicide. The audience gets to know the old Salieri first, who asks the spectators to participate in the play. In the frame plot he always tries to win the audience over. He wants them to be his confessors and addresses them as the ombri del futuro (ghosts of the future)^[5]. Right in his first monologue at the beginning of the play (I,2) he tries to win the audience’s sympathy by telling him about his faithful Catholic youth in Lombardy and the dream he had of being a composer:

The night before I left Legnago forever, I went to see Him [i.e. God] , and made a bargain with Him myself […]. “Signore, let me be a composer! Grant me sufficient fame to enjoy it. In return, I will live with virtue. I will strive to better the lot of my fellows. And I will honor You with much music all the days of my life!” As I said Amen, I saw His eyes flare. [As ‘God’] “Bene. Go forth, Antonio. Serve me and mankind, and you will be blessed!”…”Grazie!” I called back. “I am your servant for life!”^[6]

His dream becomes true: Salieri studies music and becomes Joseph’s Court Composer who is respected and whose operas and other compositions are admired. Still, he is full of faith and idealism. He is married to Teresa but their relation is completely free from passion: I required only one quality in a domestic companion – lack of fire. And in that omission Teresa was conspicuous.^[7] Salieri’s life is rather passionless anyway. His music is profession instead of passion; his compositions are created by conventional techniques and patterns instead of inspiration and feeling. The composer feels some kind of lust for his pupil Katherina but because of [his] vow to God [he] was entirely faithful to my wife. I had never laid a finger upon that girl. ^[8] The only passion Salieri shows during the whole play is his struggle with Mozart which determines his whole life until the rival’s death, but before the one real passion he reveals is for sweets ^[9], as Klein calls it.

Salieri’s life changes when he meets Mozart at court, the miraculous virtuoso ^[10] he has heard of before. Before the arrival of the young composer Salieri has been the admired number one at court who did everything to fulfil his ‘contract’ with God. Mozart is infantile, playful, hyperactive and passionate. He does not match the stiff court manners and is strongly attached to women, wine and parties. When Salieri hears Mozart’s Serenade for thirteen wind instruments, he cannot believe that this wonderful music is created by such an imperfect being. Listening to Mozart’s perfect composition makes Salieri struck with despair:

“What?! What is this? Tell me, Signore! What is this pain? What is this need in the sound? Forever unfulfillable, yet him fulfilling who hears it, utterly. Is this Your need? Can it be Yours?” […] I was suddenly frightened. It seemed to me that I had heard a voice of God – and that it issued from a creature whose own voice I had also heard – and it was the voice of an obscene child! ^[11]

Salieri considers it unjust that God has given such genius to a human being like Mozart who lives against all Catholic and classical virtues. When Constanze shows him Wolfgang’s sketches, which are already full of perfection, Salieri faces his own emptiness and mediocrity, and his struggle with God, the one who he holds responsible for his crisis, begins:

You put into me the perception of the Incomparable – which most men never know! – then ensured that I would know myself forever mediocre. [His voice gains power.] Why?...What is my fault?...Until this day I have pursued virtue with rigor. I have labored long hours to relieve my fellow men. I have worked and worked the talent You allowed me. [calling up] You know how hard I’ve worked! Solely that in the end […] I might hear Your voice. And now I do hear it – and it says only one name: MOZART! […] Him You have chosen to be Your sole conduit!^[12]

What follows is Salieri’s destruction of the divine genius. His quarrel is merely through, not with Mozart. ^[13] He does not fight against Mozart as a person but against Mozart as the incarnation of divinity; he is fighting against a God he considers to be unjust because he seems to bestow genius indifferently to morality. Salieri knows that he lacks originality in music but he is original enough to destroy Mozart’s financial and social existence at court as well as he is driving him into madness.

[...]

^[1] Shaffer, Peter: Preface. Amadeus: The Final Encounter. In: Shaffer, Peter: Amadeus. A Play. New York: Perennial 2001. p. xxxiv.

^[2] Shaffer: The Final Encounter xv.

^[3] Ibid.

^[4] For a thorough analysis of Milos Forman’s film and a comparison with the stage versions, see: Szabó-Knotik, Cornelia: Amadeus. Milos Formans Film als musikhistorisches Phänomen. Graz 1999.

^[5] Shaffer, Peter: Amadeus. A Play. New York: Perennial 2001. p. 14. In the following referred to as Amadeus 2001.

^[6] Amadeus 2001 p. 17.

^[7] Amadeus 2001 p.18.

^[8] Amadeus 2001 p. 19.

^[9] Klein, Dennis A.: Peter Shaffer. Revised Edition. New York: Twayne 1993. p. 129.

^[10] Amadeus 2001 p. 17.

^[11] Amadeus 2001 p. 28.

^[12] Amadeus 2001 p. 58.

^[13] Klein: Peter Shaffer p. 131.