About the work
Amadeus is a play by the British dramatist Peter Shaffer that stages the rivalry between the court composer Antonio Salieri and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at the Viennese imperial court under Joseph II. Shaffer drew on old anecdotes and Alexander Pushkin's short drama Mozart and Salieri, and the play premiered on 2 November 1979 at the Royal National Theatre in London, directed by Peter Hall.
Plot
Looking back from old age, the composer Salieri confesses that he systematically undermined the young Mozart out of envy for his musical genius during his own years as celebrated court composer in Vienna. Torn between admiration and the will to destroy, he presents Mozart's rise, poverty and early death as secretly his own doing.
Cultural significance
The play won several Tony Awards in 1981, including Best Play, and became internationally known through its 1984 film adaptation, which won eight Academy Awards; it remains one of the most widely performed plays about Mozart's life.