Tom Hulce, in Amadeus

I learned, just a couple of days ago, that Tom Hulce, who played the role of Mozart in Amadeus, did not initially know to play the piano!  He learned the instrument in order to take the role.  (If you remember, he played the piano while being held upside down, in one scene!)

Now, we know movies these days have amazing tricks they can use, and people who put up these pieces of information often sensationalize the stories to increase their audience statistics.  I'm not accusing the author of the story I read of anything; I'm just warning you not to swallow this story wholesale.  But there's a good chance the story is largely accurate.  (Tom Hulce looked like a very clever fellow.  If the story is true, he must be an incredibly clever man, and we ought to be making a bigger fuss over him.)

I'm sure I wrote a blog post on the movie Amadeus.  I just looked through the list of all the posts, and didn't find anything like a review of the movie. 

Amadeus

It is commonly regarded that the play Amadeus, by Peter Shaefer is a carricature of mozart. In my opinion, it isn't a carricature at all!   When I wasin school,  one year I win a prize book, called Letters of Composers, and it had numerous letters—in translation—written by Mozart.  I can say quite confidently, that Mozart's manner of speaking in the movie is a perfect depiction of what his letters were like.  Shaffer has clearly read this book, and the character of Mozart is true to this source.  (The irritating giggle was Tom Hulce's invention, but, honestly, that's probably how the great man laughed.) 

Lots of Mozart admirers were embarrassed at how their idol was depicted; nothing can be done about that; Mozart was probably just a shade—at most—more sedate than how Tom Hulce portrays him; but this is all of a piece with what we know of the man. 

There's a certain amount of invention in the playwrights depiction of Mozart's wife and mother-in-law, but not much.  That's how they are described by many witnesses!  But the miracle is how Mozart was inspired by them, and they appear in his operas in disguised form!  With a genius, nothing is wasted. 

If you haven't seen this movie, go get it and watch it.  All the characters are brilliant, including the King, Salieri, Mozart's father, the archbishop, and even some courtiers.  (One of them was instrumental in Haydn's composition of The Creation, Die Schopfung.)