Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart...RIP

Yu11375...The extent to which the Play/Movie embellished Mozart's life is debatable. That it did so to some extent is true. All stories on historical characters are "improved" a bit to make them more interesting, and this one is no worse than most. The one thing that really deviated from fact is the matter of Constanze, his wife. In life she was an talented pianist, and after Mozart's death she made a good living touring Europe and playing his work.

There is some historic record suggesting that Mozart suffered from Torette syndrome, as portrayed in the movie, and a rumor has been around for hundreds of years regarding Salieri's guilt in his death. Perhaps just a rumor, but it does make a great movie.

Yu11375...I read the essay. Thanks for the reference. It is packed with great detail about Mozart, far too much to be incorporated in a Play or movie. It is exactly what one would expect from a historian (my dad was one).

For example: Why did the movie leave out their children, who mostly died? Because that aspect, while historically true, had no bearing on the overall story, and would only weaken the dramatic impact. A very reasonable artistic decision, that would only annoy historians.

All in all, after reading the essay I still think that the movie runs as close to facts as most historically-based fiction, and the overall picture that it paints is very believable even if some of the "factual" details are only interpolations of reality.