The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters - January 31, 2026


PREVIEW： Chronicles #32 ｜ Amadeus with Josh Ferme


Episode Stats

Length

21 minutes

Words per Minute

152.64548

Word Count

3,237

Sentence Count

178

Hate Speech Sentences

6


Summary

In this episode of Chronicles, we discuss Peter Schaffer's play, Amadeus, and the rivalry between the two main characters, Salieri and Mozart, as fictionalised in the 1979 film and the play itself. We also discuss the rumour that Salieri was actually the real Mozart.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Hello and welcome to this episode of Chronicles, where today we're going to be talking all about
00:00:18.600 Amadeus by Peter Schaffer. And here to talk about this magical world of opera and music
00:00:25.320 is not necessarily a court composer, but he is a thought composer. It's Josh Firm. Hi, Josh.
00:00:32.200 What an introduction for my Chronicles debut.
00:00:35.840 No, thanks for being here, man. It's going to be a good one to talk about.
00:00:39.500 So some of you in the audience may know me. I should bloody well hope so.
00:00:44.620 Yeah, I'm introducing you to the audience.
00:00:48.280 But you might be saying, what does Josh know about high culture other than, you know,
00:00:52.900 sounding a little bit middle class. And occasionally shooting pheasants.
00:00:59.100 If only. Alas, I live in central Swindon, so it'll be more peasants than pheasants.
00:01:04.640 But that's not an admission of guilt, by the way.
00:01:08.740 So, yes, obviously, I don't necessarily have a background in classical opera or classical music.
00:01:16.620 However, I am a musician that also listens to music that is classical in nature.
00:01:23.340 And believe it or not, before reading the play and watching the film,
00:01:28.660 which, by the way, top five films of all time for me.
00:01:31.580 Oh, masterpiece. Total masterpiece.
00:01:33.780 I had heard of Mozart. I know it's hard to believe, but I've heard of the guy.
00:01:37.660 I've listened to some of his music.
00:01:39.980 Kind of a big deal, wasn't he?
00:01:41.100 Yeah.
00:01:41.800 Yeah. In my household, we played classical music quite often.
00:01:45.900 So it's something I've been brought up with.
00:01:48.040 And so watching the film as my introduction to the play,
00:01:53.020 as I watched the film before the play,
00:01:54.740 I was immediately sucked into this world and found it very compelling
00:02:01.300 in a way that took me by surprise.
00:02:04.580 Because it's a three and a half hour film, the director's cut.
00:02:07.780 And over the past three months, I've watched it three or four times,
00:02:10.560 which is a lot for a film that long.
00:02:14.300 Well, the testament to the quality of the actual film.
00:02:17.620 That's wonderful, yeah.
00:02:18.580 Yeah. And I suppose, because I, like you, was, you know,
00:02:22.040 I discovered the film first and then realised that it was a play many years ago.
00:02:26.980 I have actually been to see a theatrical performance of Amadeus at the National Theatre.
00:02:31.520 And there was a lot that was really good about it.
00:02:35.620 I mean, sure, it's set in London, so they've race-swapped it.
00:02:39.460 And Salieri's played by a black man.
00:02:41.320 But to have, you understand, like, in its original environment,
00:02:44.800 when this play first came out in 1979 at the National Theatre,
00:02:50.940 you know, to have the orchestra, to have, you know, to hear Mozart's music,
00:02:56.240 to hear Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, all of these great musical pieces
00:03:00.720 that Mozart was obviously famous for, intertwined with this very, very,
00:03:06.660 and I want to preface this, heavily fictionalised version of history, right?
00:03:11.720 Very little in here and the events that we're going to talk about
00:03:15.400 and the rivalry between Mozart and Salieri really has any basis in true history.
00:03:22.760 In real life, they were good friends, weren't they?
00:03:24.820 They were, they were.
00:03:26.000 But even though the play and its entire narrative of conflict
00:03:31.320 with Salieri and Mozart is fictional and, as you say,
00:03:35.180 doesn't really map onto actual history,
00:03:37.660 I think one of the important points to make is that even at the time,
00:03:43.440 rumours of similar things were taking place after Mozart died,
00:03:49.240 very quickly after he died in 1791,
00:03:52.620 all sorts of rumours were swirling about that they had been poisoned,
00:03:56.020 that somebody had killed Mozart.
00:03:58.420 And when Salieri tried to commit suicide in 1823, you know, three decades later,
00:04:06.040 a part of that was due to a mental breakdown that he was going through
00:04:12.080 due to all of the rumours and gossip naming him as one of Mozart's apparent murderers.
00:04:19.280 And so even though he denied it at the end of his life,
00:04:22.520 it was something that even there, you know, in that era of classical music,
00:04:27.040 rumour was spread about it throughout European societies.
00:04:32.400 And so eventually you get a play being written only five years after Salieri died in 1830
00:04:39.980 called Mozart and Salieri by the famous Russian writer Alexander Pushkin.
00:04:46.840 And so, and then you had an opera as well that was made based on Pushkin's play
00:04:53.060 in towards the end of the 19th century.
00:04:55.260 And then eventually you get, in 1979, this Amadeus, this play by Peter Schaffer.
00:05:04.700 And it's brilliant, but it very much is working within,
00:05:08.680 it's a product in its own way of all of the rumour and gossip
00:05:12.840 that was around 200 years before.
00:05:16.880 So it's quite remarkable.
00:05:17.460 It's also depicted quite, the gossipy nature is much more present
00:05:23.540 in the actual play than in the film.
00:05:25.620 Yeah, with the ventichello.
00:05:27.060 Exactly.
00:05:27.820 Ventichello, yeah, the little winds.
00:05:29.540 Mm-hmm.
00:05:29.940 And I think that there's a sort of revelling in gossip
00:05:33.960 and a sort of playfulness in the writing of the play
00:05:39.440 that is manifest in the film in the character of Mozart.
00:05:43.840 But in the book, it's sort of the world that is given this veneer
00:05:47.860 of this playful, gossipy thing.
00:05:52.000 And there's jokes in there that actually made me laugh out loud.
00:05:56.860 I'm not even sure if they're intended as jokes,
00:05:59.120 but they're sort of blunt points of dry humour.
00:06:02.600 Yeah.
00:06:02.980 Which you don't expect.
00:06:05.120 Do you know what I mean?
00:06:05.860 Yeah, I do.
00:06:06.800 Well, I like the way, for example, just to jump ahead a little bit,
00:06:10.720 the way that Salieri introduces all of the different characters
00:06:15.260 in the play, his little ways of explaining their personalities
00:06:18.420 in very concise bits, where he talks about, you know,
00:06:22.000 a capelmeister Bono, you know, and being the capelmeister,
00:06:26.140 you know, the grand, the conductor for the Italian opera.
00:06:30.580 And Salieri is really just waiting for him to die
00:06:33.060 so he can take over his position as capelmeister.
00:06:35.720 And Bono's just not granting it.
00:06:39.840 There seems to be sort of a tenacious, stubborn disregard
00:06:45.160 for other people in the name Bono.
00:06:48.640 Who knew?
00:06:49.540 It seems to be a running thing.
00:06:51.880 There is a lot of overlap, obviously,
00:06:54.180 with the film being an adapted screenplay.
00:06:57.920 And obviously, just worth saying as well,
00:07:00.920 that both the play and the film won numerous awards.
00:07:05.840 And deservedly so.
00:07:06.620 Yeah, deservedly so.
00:07:08.180 But as you say already, there are differences.
00:07:10.900 I remember when I did A Man for All Seasons
00:07:14.180 with Bo on Chronicles,
00:07:16.840 and we were talking about how that one by Robert Bolt,
00:07:20.460 the play which came first,
00:07:23.680 felt more like an extended edition of the same script.
00:07:27.520 But actually, the dialogue was almost copy and paste.
00:07:30.980 A lot of it was really the same between the two mediums.
00:07:33.900 Whereas this is actually a little bit different.
00:07:36.300 The ending, in particular, is very, very different
00:07:39.020 to the point that Shaffer came out and said
00:07:41.860 he preferred the ending in the actual film.
00:07:44.680 And I do too.
00:07:45.200 Oh, what a good sport.
00:07:46.060 Yeah.
00:07:46.500 Fair enough.
00:07:47.260 Yeah.
00:07:47.420 Now, I think as much as it's a sort of low
00:07:52.760 and uncultured thing to say,
00:07:55.700 I did prefer the film to reading the screenplay.
00:08:00.400 And of course, there's more life to a film
00:08:02.860 than there is reading a play,
00:08:04.300 which is obviously just a foundation for something greater.
00:08:08.520 Sure.
00:08:08.720 However, I think even with my mental representations
00:08:13.440 taken from the film,
00:08:15.200 the world in which the film constructs
00:08:17.780 is more compelling to me than the book.
00:08:20.460 Although some of the iconic lines in the film
00:08:23.060 are in the play basically verbatim.
00:08:26.720 Yeah.
00:08:27.120 So all of the best notes are originally from that play.
00:08:30.720 Too many notes.
00:08:33.020 Good reference.
00:08:34.140 Yeah.
00:08:34.760 So let's begin, shall we, by...
00:08:37.080 So the entire narrative is framed around...
00:08:40.620 You're looking at Salieri, this aged composer
00:08:43.620 who has been a great success in his own day
00:08:46.840 and in about 1823.
00:08:49.880 And really, this entire play is his confession
00:08:54.160 to the audience for all of the evil, corrupt,
00:08:58.580 sinful things that he's done in his life.
00:09:00.800 In this, basically, there's no other way to put it,
00:09:04.940 war on God, right?
00:09:07.340 Salieri himself waged war on God.
00:09:10.720 But it wasn't always like that to begin with.
00:09:14.140 And you see a young boy born in 1750,
00:09:19.020 around and somewhere near Venice, you know, Italian,
00:09:23.700 with a father who...
00:09:25.720 So Salieri was born and he just had this natural love.
00:09:30.260 for music.
00:09:31.960 You know, he really believed that music was
00:09:34.320 the greatest form of art.
00:09:37.940 And it was through music.
00:09:38.680 He describes it as the language of God, basically.
00:09:41.660 Yeah.
00:09:42.120 And so through that, that's how we communicate
00:09:44.420 with God, through music.
00:09:46.240 I actually very much understand where he's coming from.
00:09:50.720 And if you're particularly musically minded,
00:09:54.220 you're...
00:09:55.260 The sort of feelings you get when you're listening
00:09:57.920 to music as a musician,
00:09:59.300 it feels like almost the language of God
00:10:03.420 or of the universe.
00:10:04.980 There's something almost transcendent
00:10:07.000 and outside of oneself.
00:10:10.000 And of course, if you really drill down into it,
00:10:13.680 it's...
00:10:14.480 Music is mathematical in its entirety.
00:10:17.780 It can be analyzed entirely mathematical
00:10:19.560 because it's, of course, the vibrations of sound
00:10:22.740 and also patterns and frequencies.
00:10:25.280 And so there's some argument to say
00:10:27.420 that it's manipulating the universe
00:10:28.900 in a way in which resonates
00:10:30.740 with something more transcendent.
00:10:33.900 And that's...
00:10:35.240 This is one thing that I wanted to go into
00:10:37.740 as an overarching thing that I like about Amadeus,
00:10:41.400 both the play and the film,
00:10:44.320 is that there's such a rich selection
00:10:48.140 of deep themes throughout both iterations.
00:10:53.960 And there's so much to think about,
00:10:55.940 so much to go away and contemplate.
00:10:58.680 And it's tackling, you know,
00:11:01.300 in a fictional sense at least,
00:11:03.540 a very human story
00:11:06.800 about various aspects of human nature
00:11:09.820 in a way that I found very, very compelling.
00:11:12.720 I absolutely agree with that.
00:11:14.080 And I think that that's one of the reasons
00:11:16.720 why, actually,
00:11:17.980 that Schaffer justifies,
00:11:22.140 like, in the actual merits of the work,
00:11:24.260 he justifies playing so loose with actual history.
00:11:27.600 Because, really, it's not a history
00:11:29.840 that he's trying to tell.
00:11:31.560 What he's trying to do is create a story
00:11:34.660 that appeals to all those themes
00:11:37.060 that you, of course, find so interesting.
00:11:39.480 He actually described it
00:11:40.860 as basically being like a fantasia
00:11:42.960 on Mozart's life.
00:11:45.020 It's more of a fantasy
00:11:46.000 than it is an actual history.
00:11:48.220 It's a sort of a set and setting
00:11:50.020 or a canvas in which to paint,
00:11:51.900 more than anything else.
00:11:53.500 But I think the fact that
00:11:55.080 it's involving, you know,
00:11:57.960 people who,
00:11:59.660 to perhaps more educated Europeans,
00:12:03.020 household names,
00:12:04.400 and creating this story of history
00:12:07.160 in a playful way.
00:12:08.300 Like, even if you didn't know anything
00:12:10.200 about the background
00:12:10.960 and you just watched the film
00:12:12.380 or just read the play,
00:12:14.640 you wouldn't presume
00:12:15.780 that this is a historic telling
00:12:18.240 of the history.
00:12:19.480 And normally I'm very pedantic
00:12:20.580 about caring about those sorts of depictions.
00:12:23.340 But with this,
00:12:24.880 it's got such life to it
00:12:27.180 that it doesn't matter,
00:12:29.080 I don't think.
00:12:30.220 Yeah.
00:12:30.340 There's a sort of
00:12:32.960 this playful,
00:12:36.960 almost zealous approach
00:12:39.500 to things that I find very infectious.
00:12:42.860 And it's,
00:12:43.900 again, in the film,
00:12:44.940 it's presented via
00:12:45.860 the character of Mozart himself.
00:12:48.160 And in the novel,
00:12:49.160 it's present in everyone
00:12:50.840 to a certain extent.
00:12:51.920 Yes.
00:12:52.220 this living life
00:12:55.620 in a way
00:12:56.980 that you have
00:12:57.620 such a grand appreciation of it.
00:12:59.420 And although the different characters
00:13:00.540 in the play
00:13:01.840 manifest this
00:13:04.120 in different ways,
00:13:06.200 you know,
00:13:07.020 Mozart's known
00:13:07.960 to be a heavy drinker
00:13:09.820 and a bit of a womanizer.
00:13:11.520 Like a fart joke.
00:13:12.640 Yeah.
00:13:13.120 Yeah.
00:13:13.540 And it's a bit childish.
00:13:14.640 That's how it manifests in him.
00:13:16.000 In Salieri,
00:13:16.780 it's music
00:13:18.060 and food.
00:13:19.360 And it's sort of
00:13:20.160 how do these
00:13:21.160 these pleasures manifest in life
00:13:23.020 that I found interesting.
00:13:24.420 Yeah.
00:13:24.560 And there's not even a focal point
00:13:25.880 of the story,
00:13:26.680 but they're just sort of
00:13:27.400 sprinkled in
00:13:28.200 for those who are
00:13:29.400 sort of paying attention
00:13:30.300 in a very nice way.
00:13:32.520 Definitely.
00:13:33.060 I'll just read this extract
00:13:34.060 from towards the beginning
00:13:35.500 of the play
00:13:36.000 where Salieri talks about
00:13:37.680 his life
00:13:38.780 and the things that he wanted
00:13:39.940 as a young man
00:13:40.640 where he says,
00:13:41.440 I wanted fame
00:13:42.380 not to deceive you.
00:13:43.880 I wanted to blaze
00:13:44.980 like a comet
00:13:45.700 across a firmament of Europe.
00:13:47.480 Yet only in one
00:13:49.400 special way.
00:13:50.860 Music.
00:13:52.200 Absolute music.
00:13:53.900 A note of music
00:13:54.860 is either right
00:13:55.860 or wrong.
00:13:56.920 Absolutely.
00:13:58.120 Not even time
00:13:59.120 can alter that.
00:14:00.300 Music is God's art.
00:14:02.180 Already when I was ten
00:14:03.940 a spray of sounded notes
00:14:05.580 would make me dizzy
00:14:06.920 almost to falling.
00:14:08.660 By twelve
00:14:09.200 I was humming
00:14:09.860 my arias
00:14:10.620 and anthems
00:14:11.340 to the Lord.
00:14:12.280 My one desire
00:14:13.300 was to join
00:14:14.200 all the composers
00:14:15.380 who had celebrated
00:14:16.380 his glory
00:14:17.260 through the long
00:14:18.360 Italian past.
00:14:20.140 Every Sunday
00:14:20.740 I saw him in church
00:14:22.140 painted on the flaking wall.
00:14:24.600 I don't mean Christ
00:14:25.680 the Christs of Lombardy
00:14:27.260 as simpering cities
00:14:28.800 with lambskins
00:14:29.760 on their sleeves.
00:14:30.940 No.
00:14:31.500 I mean
00:14:32.180 an old
00:14:33.300 candle-smoked god
00:14:34.640 in the mulberry robe
00:14:36.240 staring at the world
00:14:37.680 with dealer's eyes.
00:14:39.320 Tradesmen
00:14:39.860 had put him
00:14:40.560 up there.
00:14:41.580 Those eyes
00:14:42.200 made bargains
00:14:43.180 real and irreversible.
00:14:45.000 And so he talks
00:14:46.220 about the fact
00:14:46.740 that you gave me
00:14:47.820 this longing
00:14:49.260 for music, Lord.
00:14:50.480 Let me live up
00:14:52.160 to that.
00:14:52.540 That longing
00:14:53.080 that you've put
00:14:53.780 into me.
00:14:54.340 Make me a great
00:14:55.380 composer.
00:14:57.000 Give me those
00:14:57.920 things that I want.
00:14:58.880 Fame and to be
00:15:00.160 the wonder of Europe
00:15:01.560 and for everyone
00:15:02.360 to hear my music
00:15:03.500 because my music
00:15:04.640 is my means
00:15:05.980 of praising you.
00:15:07.060 Your goodness.
00:15:07.960 Your eternal worth.
00:15:09.620 But the thing is
00:15:11.100 and this is where
00:15:11.820 you get into it
00:15:12.700 from the very beginning
00:15:13.620 that Salieri
00:15:15.280 immediately makes
00:15:16.760 his own virtue
00:15:18.020 his goodness
00:15:19.360 conditional on
00:15:20.780 God's support.
00:15:22.100 He's not actually
00:15:23.080 just going to be
00:15:24.060 live a very good
00:15:25.280 virtuous Christian life
00:15:26.900 in and of itself
00:15:28.760 for its own ends
00:15:29.640 and its own means
00:15:30.400 and the way that it
00:15:31.220 impacts the people
00:15:32.480 around him.
00:15:33.360 He will only be good
00:15:35.120 on the proviso
00:15:36.940 that God grants him
00:15:38.520 the things that he wants
00:15:40.160 in life.
00:15:41.600 So there are two things
00:15:43.040 I want to say about this.
00:15:43.940 The first of which is
00:15:44.840 that that extract
00:15:46.300 is a particularly
00:15:47.520 good example
00:15:48.140 of the book's
00:15:49.220 representation
00:15:49.860 of the development
00:15:51.160 in the story
00:15:51.760 being much better
00:15:52.720 or the play
00:15:54.340 should I say
00:15:54.900 than the film
00:15:56.020 because the language
00:15:57.140 used there
00:15:57.900 is magnificently written.
00:16:01.000 It is very flowery
00:16:03.160 and very emotive
00:16:04.500 in a way that
00:16:05.260 when Salieri
00:16:06.180 is talking about
00:16:06.860 it in the film
00:16:07.500 he's less poetic
00:16:10.940 about it.
00:16:11.640 He's just more
00:16:12.380 giving you story notes
00:16:14.260 which I think
00:16:15.460 is a shame really.
00:16:18.060 So the second point
00:16:19.320 being that I find
00:16:20.180 it interesting
00:16:20.820 that Salieri
00:16:21.600 sort of bargains
00:16:22.640 with God
00:16:23.280 and holds his goodness
00:16:25.680 as one of the
00:16:27.120 aspects that
00:16:28.480 God gets in return
00:16:30.080 and that it could
00:16:32.400 be interpreted
00:16:33.160 as why he was
00:16:35.300 sort of brought
00:16:36.100 so high
00:16:36.700 and then brought
00:16:37.320 down so low
00:16:38.560 was to punish him
00:16:39.920 for thinking
00:16:40.400 that he can
00:16:41.060 basically bargain
00:16:41.900 with God
00:16:44.120 with his virtue
00:16:46.300 as a chip
00:16:46.840 on the table
00:16:47.500 and that's
00:16:49.700 some sort of
00:16:50.280 divine punishment
00:16:51.240 which I think
00:16:52.880 there's certainly
00:16:53.460 evidence that you
00:16:54.360 could
00:16:54.620 in both the play
00:16:56.900 and the film
00:16:57.480 that that is
00:16:58.060 an interpretation
00:16:58.640 of it
00:16:59.340 but I also think
00:17:00.780 that it's interesting
00:17:03.680 as well
00:17:04.160 that he goes
00:17:04.980 back further
00:17:05.820 in time
00:17:07.240 almost to
00:17:09.120 pre-enlightenment
00:17:10.100 because of course
00:17:10.860 it says so
00:17:11.640 more explicitly
00:17:12.400 in the play
00:17:13.620 than in the film
00:17:15.320 that this is
00:17:17.080 you know
00:17:17.760 the enlightenment
00:17:18.460 this is a grand
00:17:19.820 time of
00:17:20.680 people are no longer
00:17:22.200 bogged down
00:17:22.960 by silly things
00:17:24.880 like I don't know
00:17:26.120 superstition
00:17:26.840 or what have you
00:17:27.700 everything that Hume
00:17:29.820 railed against
00:17:30.700 you know
00:17:31.240 all those little things
00:17:32.120 yeah
00:17:32.340 and it's interesting
00:17:33.460 that Salieri
00:17:34.020 sort of goes
00:17:34.700 to a pre-enlightenment
00:17:35.960 notion of God
00:17:38.040 as someone
00:17:39.120 who can be bargained
00:17:40.140 with
00:17:40.540 and you come up
00:17:41.720 with a negotiation
00:17:42.640 because sort of
00:17:44.000 post-enlightenment
00:17:44.700 God was more
00:17:45.700 it took on
00:17:47.420 a different character
00:17:48.360 in the European mind
00:17:49.480 and I find that
00:17:50.720 very interesting
00:17:51.860 in how it's presented
00:17:53.000 but sorry
00:17:53.500 no no
00:17:54.080 you're going to read
00:17:54.680 another quote
00:17:55.840 no it's all right
00:17:56.620 I was just going to say
00:17:57.460 that and also
00:17:58.500 the fact that
00:17:59.360 so Salieri
00:18:00.320 makes this bargain
00:18:01.640 with God
00:18:02.300 and it seems
00:18:03.640 very quickly
00:18:04.460 to Salieri
00:18:05.720 that God
00:18:06.980 accepts this pact
00:18:08.940 he accepts this deal
00:18:09.880 because Salieri's
00:18:10.960 father dies
00:18:11.880 and Salieri's
00:18:13.860 father had been
00:18:14.640 a man who
00:18:15.320 had not wanted
00:18:16.380 who had actively
00:18:18.000 discouraged his son
00:18:19.160 from pursuing
00:18:20.100 this path
00:18:20.660 of music
00:18:21.160 and concert
00:18:21.780 and going around
00:18:22.980 the courts
00:18:23.460 of Europe
00:18:24.040 you know
00:18:24.420 he wanted him
00:18:25.000 to live a humbler
00:18:25.840 life
00:18:26.780 that's in the film
00:18:27.680 but in the
00:18:28.260 play I think
00:18:29.640 someone just
00:18:30.620 comes along
00:18:31.360 and he says
00:18:32.600 the following day
00:18:33.720 and whisks him away
00:18:35.500 whereas I feel like
00:18:36.940 the way the film
00:18:37.960 presents it
00:18:38.480 is probably a bit better
00:18:39.280 yeah
00:18:39.680 but also in the film
00:18:41.760 the way it's described
00:18:42.500 as a miracle
00:18:43.220 as well
00:18:44.260 the death of your father
00:18:45.580 is a miracle
00:18:46.740 yeah
00:18:47.360 like his father
00:18:48.020 didn't really do
00:18:48.640 anything wrong
00:18:49.400 no
00:18:49.800 he just
00:18:51.360 didn't want to
00:18:52.740 encourage him
00:18:54.040 going into music
00:18:54.860 which
00:18:55.260 you know
00:18:55.960 most parents
00:18:57.220 have preferred
00:18:58.480 professions
00:18:59.080 for their children
00:19:00.020 so it's not that
00:19:01.140 unusual
00:19:01.760 Salieri
00:19:02.580 I know when I was
00:19:03.960 talking about
00:19:04.740 oh you know
00:19:05.240 maybe I could be
00:19:06.020 a musician
00:19:06.540 because I'd been
00:19:07.800 you know
00:19:08.160 played
00:19:08.580 since I was a teenager
00:19:09.740 my parents were like
00:19:10.840 well
00:19:11.220 it might be a good idea
00:19:12.440 to have a career
00:19:13.240 just in case
00:19:14.800 but they're basically
00:19:15.540 like yeah
00:19:15.800 don't be an idiot
00:19:16.400 and they were right
00:19:17.300 yeah
00:19:17.920 well I've seen
00:19:19.980 all of your guitars
00:19:20.860 they're there for a reason
00:19:22.240 aren't they
00:19:22.600 they have a purpose
00:19:23.520 yeah
00:19:24.080 ornamentation at the minute
00:19:25.300 I've hardly been playing
00:19:26.280 yeah
00:19:26.640 so Salieri ends up
00:19:28.420 going to Vienna
00:19:29.600 you know
00:19:30.060 into the heart
00:19:30.780 of the Habsburg Empire
00:19:32.200 he gains the favour
00:19:33.840 of Emperor Joseph II
00:19:35.820 you know
00:19:36.340 the Holy Roman Emperor
00:19:37.820 who is
00:19:38.360 I will just say
00:19:39.000 even though he's a minor character
00:19:40.580 he's so entertaining
00:19:42.280 you know
00:19:43.160 like there's so much comedy
00:19:44.480 that Schaffer squeezes out
00:19:46.360 of him
00:19:46.740 he seems very
00:19:47.900 almost charming
00:19:50.480 a touch bumbling
00:19:51.660 in his depiction
00:19:53.580 even though
00:19:54.880 you know
00:19:55.740 actual historic accounts
00:19:56.760 of the man
00:19:57.260 are glowing
00:19:58.300 and he's not presented
00:19:59.240 badly here either
00:20:00.280 no
00:20:00.600 no
00:20:01.120 he's definitely presented
00:20:02.580 as well-meaning
00:20:04.220 and obviously
00:20:05.580 with a passion for music
00:20:06.880 you know
00:20:07.180 in the sense that
00:20:07.980 akin to the actual
00:20:09.560 historical Joseph II
00:20:11.020 he was a great patron
00:20:12.840 of the arts
00:20:13.860 and you see in this as well
00:20:15.280 but one of the things
00:20:16.940 that I find interesting
00:20:18.080 is when Mozart
00:20:19.640 comes on the scene
00:20:20.740 how Mozart
00:20:21.780 is able
00:20:22.620 to push
00:20:24.100 the boundaries
00:20:24.880 of what is
00:20:26.620 acceptable art
00:20:27.760 throughout it
00:20:29.380 no
00:20:29.660 we're going to have
00:20:30.480 this one
00:20:30.880 where it's not going to be
00:20:31.880 in Italian
00:20:32.320 it's going to be in German
00:20:33.460 no we're staging this
00:20:34.840 in an Ottoman harem
00:20:36.240 yes we're going to have
00:20:37.740 ballet
00:20:38.160 even though you
00:20:39.320 banned it
00:20:39.920 by your own decree
00:20:40.780 Mozart's constantly
00:20:42.320 able to break
00:20:43.380 these barriers
00:20:44.340 for like
00:20:45.320 what the establishment
00:20:46.460 will allow
00:20:47.440 to be seen
00:20:48.220 by the general public
00:20:49.980 whereas Salieri
00:20:51.340 is obviously
00:20:52.140 a much more
00:20:53.080 he plays it much safer
00:20:54.740 he tries to work
00:20:56.120 within
00:20:56.700 the things that
00:20:57.880 have already been
00:20:58.760 decided are appropriate
00:21:00.140 and to the
00:21:01.480 fashionable tastes
00:21:02.640 of the time
00:21:03.320 whereas Mozart
00:21:04.320 is obviously
00:21:05.120 more of a trailblazer
00:21:06.460 if you enjoyed
00:21:07.360 this piece of
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00:21:08.740 from the Lotus Eaters
00:21:09.820 head to our website
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