Warning: Salieri Feelings Ahoy
I've been obsessing over MOR (Mozart L'Opera Rock) for the past week, and I just have a lot of Salieri feelings.
First of all, I'm getting /so/ tired of seeing people talk about him like the portrayal of him in Amadeus is actually Salieri. I mean, I liked Amadeus, far more than I anticipated. I thought there were some great lines, and it was an intriguing study on obsessions and envy. But I am also aware that it is a fictional film. Antonio Salieri the historical figure? Not actually a bitter old man with jealousy issues who had boring mediocre compositions.
Salieri actually had pretty good musical talent, and wrote fairly good music. At the time, some of his works were as popular if not more so than Mozart's. He was not, in fact, attempting to suppress Mozart's work--there are several cases where he intentionally supported Mozart's music, such as opening with one of Mozart's operas rather than one of his own. There are letters of Mozart's where he writes jealously of Salieri (which is so painfully ironic, I can't even) because the prince automatically loves everything Salieri does. Ultimately, though, there is no proof of much bad blood between them aside from Mozart's initial annoyance. They even wrote a song together that is unfortunately no longer in existence or I would listen the hell out of it and link people everywhere so they realize this. Eventually Salieri's music became generally less popular, and rumors started to circulate that he was behind Mozart's death. His name sort of got dragged through the mud despite him doing zero bad things to deserve it.
So even from that basis I'm already annoyed with the sheer number of people who talk as though Amadeus's Salieri is the real one. There was someone on tumblr who wrote that they wouldn't like someone who liked either Salieri or the Mozart/Salieri ship. And I'm not a perfect person--I judge people for the things they like sometimes, even if I don't mean to. But the sheer ignorance behind that statement just floored me. The implication is that Salieri was evil and killed Mozart and thus liking him or liking him with Mozart is bad. But what if someone likes Salieri because of his actual fucking music? What if someone likes Salieri/Mozart because of MOR rather than Amadeus? Judging people for a fictional and very inaccurate portrayal of someone is just shitty, okay?
There are also a lot of people who are all "oh, I'm totally Salieri", and I get that, okay? I get the feeling of being mediocre at stuff even if you care about it a lot. I get it, because I get rejected at auditions or I post something I wrote and get a bare handful of responses compared to other people. But the number of people who try to use Salieri as a comparison saddens me because he wasn't mediocre. He was actually talented.
And on that note, that leads me to my next thought, which is that MOR does a much better job with the Salieri character than Amadeus. Again, I did like Amadeus, even if it was rather difficult to watch sometimes because of the themes. But MOR, while it still portrays Salieri as conniving against Mozart out of envy, also shows Salieri as a human being. Salieri is envious, but he struggles with it, and hesitates, and has a lot of guilt about it. He's not just a cold bitter older man, he's not just a jealous asshole. In Amadeus, I got the sense that Salieri ultimately regretted what he did, but it was only because he wanted to escape his guilt. In MOR, I get the sense that he ultimately comes to reconcile with Mozart out of the knowledge that he did something terrible and it wasn't worth it in the end, and that he's better than that. While they're both fictional, and both use the "Salieri envies Mozart" plotline that is historically inaccurate, I feel like MOR does a better job of humanizing Salieri, instead of intentionally making us dislike him.
Anyway, a couple of extra random thoughts on MOR.
1. So apparently last fall it was reported that they were adapting MOR for Broadway. Now, this both excites and terrifies me, because I would love for MOR to come to the US, but at the same time it sounds like they want to change it a great deal to make it more "suitable for American audiences" or something like that. I just really hope they don't ruin it in the adaptation. Also, I adore Mikele and Flo and I'm not sure I would like new actors nearly as much, and I'm guessing there's a decent chance they would hire new actors.
2. They did a tour earlier this year in Russia. I'm super excited that the MOR cast is still doing stuff together periodically, because I adore them and they are perfect. At the same time I'm jealous that they only went to Russia.
3. So, the original run of MOR in Paris ended on January 3 in 2010. As a reference, they started a tour a month later, then returned to Paris in November for a second run, which was followed by a second tour in 2011. I'm not sure exactly what happened (there's not a lot of info that I can find), but Mikele was super emotional during the January 3, 2010 run. My guess is because that was the last day of the original Paris run, that maybe they didn't know at the time that the show would be continuing in any capacity, so they thought that was the last day forever. Anyway, below you'll see a video of the very last scene in MOR, where Mozart is dying and Salieri visits. Constanze, Mozart's wife, tries to kick Salieri out, but Mozart gets out of bed to talk to him and they reconcile. If you start at about 3:30 you can see Mozart/Mikele getting out of bed (to go to Salieri/Florent), and shouting "Salieri!" followed closely by "Florent!" I don't know why I adore this as much as I do, but it's sweet and adorable and a little heartbreaking.
First of all, I'm getting /so/ tired of seeing people talk about him like the portrayal of him in Amadeus is actually Salieri. I mean, I liked Amadeus, far more than I anticipated. I thought there were some great lines, and it was an intriguing study on obsessions and envy. But I am also aware that it is a fictional film. Antonio Salieri the historical figure? Not actually a bitter old man with jealousy issues who had boring mediocre compositions.
Salieri actually had pretty good musical talent, and wrote fairly good music. At the time, some of his works were as popular if not more so than Mozart's. He was not, in fact, attempting to suppress Mozart's work--there are several cases where he intentionally supported Mozart's music, such as opening with one of Mozart's operas rather than one of his own. There are letters of Mozart's where he writes jealously of Salieri (which is so painfully ironic, I can't even) because the prince automatically loves everything Salieri does. Ultimately, though, there is no proof of much bad blood between them aside from Mozart's initial annoyance. They even wrote a song together that is unfortunately no longer in existence or I would listen the hell out of it and link people everywhere so they realize this. Eventually Salieri's music became generally less popular, and rumors started to circulate that he was behind Mozart's death. His name sort of got dragged through the mud despite him doing zero bad things to deserve it.
So even from that basis I'm already annoyed with the sheer number of people who talk as though Amadeus's Salieri is the real one. There was someone on tumblr who wrote that they wouldn't like someone who liked either Salieri or the Mozart/Salieri ship. And I'm not a perfect person--I judge people for the things they like sometimes, even if I don't mean to. But the sheer ignorance behind that statement just floored me. The implication is that Salieri was evil and killed Mozart and thus liking him or liking him with Mozart is bad. But what if someone likes Salieri because of his actual fucking music? What if someone likes Salieri/Mozart because of MOR rather than Amadeus? Judging people for a fictional and very inaccurate portrayal of someone is just shitty, okay?
There are also a lot of people who are all "oh, I'm totally Salieri", and I get that, okay? I get the feeling of being mediocre at stuff even if you care about it a lot. I get it, because I get rejected at auditions or I post something I wrote and get a bare handful of responses compared to other people. But the number of people who try to use Salieri as a comparison saddens me because he wasn't mediocre. He was actually talented.
And on that note, that leads me to my next thought, which is that MOR does a much better job with the Salieri character than Amadeus. Again, I did like Amadeus, even if it was rather difficult to watch sometimes because of the themes. But MOR, while it still portrays Salieri as conniving against Mozart out of envy, also shows Salieri as a human being. Salieri is envious, but he struggles with it, and hesitates, and has a lot of guilt about it. He's not just a cold bitter older man, he's not just a jealous asshole. In Amadeus, I got the sense that Salieri ultimately regretted what he did, but it was only because he wanted to escape his guilt. In MOR, I get the sense that he ultimately comes to reconcile with Mozart out of the knowledge that he did something terrible and it wasn't worth it in the end, and that he's better than that. While they're both fictional, and both use the "Salieri envies Mozart" plotline that is historically inaccurate, I feel like MOR does a better job of humanizing Salieri, instead of intentionally making us dislike him.
Anyway, a couple of extra random thoughts on MOR.
1. So apparently last fall it was reported that they were adapting MOR for Broadway. Now, this both excites and terrifies me, because I would love for MOR to come to the US, but at the same time it sounds like they want to change it a great deal to make it more "suitable for American audiences" or something like that. I just really hope they don't ruin it in the adaptation. Also, I adore Mikele and Flo and I'm not sure I would like new actors nearly as much, and I'm guessing there's a decent chance they would hire new actors.
2. They did a tour earlier this year in Russia. I'm super excited that the MOR cast is still doing stuff together periodically, because I adore them and they are perfect. At the same time I'm jealous that they only went to Russia.
3. So, the original run of MOR in Paris ended on January 3 in 2010. As a reference, they started a tour a month later, then returned to Paris in November for a second run, which was followed by a second tour in 2011. I'm not sure exactly what happened (there's not a lot of info that I can find), but Mikele was super emotional during the January 3, 2010 run. My guess is because that was the last day of the original Paris run, that maybe they didn't know at the time that the show would be continuing in any capacity, so they thought that was the last day forever. Anyway, below you'll see a video of the very last scene in MOR, where Mozart is dying and Salieri visits. Constanze, Mozart's wife, tries to kick Salieri out, but Mozart gets out of bed to talk to him and they reconcile. If you start at about 3:30 you can see Mozart/Mikele getting out of bed (to go to Salieri/Florent), and shouting "Salieri!" followed closely by "Florent!" I don't know why I adore this as much as I do, but it's sweet and adorable and a little heartbreaking.
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