Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Amadeus. Not Falco.

Recently, I have acquired what some would call an unhealthy obsession with the movie Amadeus.
I love everything about it.
The plot.
The history.
The characters.
The music. *duh*
And the actors.

When I really like something, I envelope myself in it.
As soon as I went home for Spring Break, I scavenged our family CD collection for any classical music I did not already have.

Yes, I have always loved Vivaldi and Beathoven, but I wanted something more.
There was not near enough Mozart to fill my craving.

I went and bought a 4 disc set of Mozart's piano sonatas.
I bought a compilation album from popular artists who picked their favorite instrumental classics.

I still want more.
Requiem, to be more specific.

Along with my scavenging for music, I have been researching the discrepancies of the movie and the real life of Mozart.  
For instance, Amadeus depicts Mozart and his wife Constanze as having only one child.
This is a falsehood.
In reality, Mozart his wife welcomed 6 children into the world, of which only 2 survived longer than a year.  Neither married, and neither had children.  Neither did Mozart's sister, Nannerl, ending the blood line of the Mozart family. :O(

Mozart was not murdered by Antonio Salieri either.
His untimely death has been concluded to be due to rheumatic fever, an immune system disease.
Though there was some tension between Mozart and Salieri, it did not go farther than that.

Also, ensuing my curiosities, I wanted to know more about Tom Hulce, the man who played Wolfgang in the movie.
Looking at his past and present work, I was really excited to see that I have been supporting him for a few years now.
He was the voice of Quasimodo in both Disney Notre Dame movies, the crazy office psychologist in Stranger Than Fiction, AND (this was exciting for me), he was the lead producer of the Tony Award winning best musical of 2007, Spring Awakening.  
That was awesome for me because I went to Houston with my best friend this January to see the last production of the musical before it closed forever.  
In addition to his work with Spring Awakening, Hulce was the original 'Daniel Radcliffe' in Equus, which, me being a girl, obviously did not hurt my feelings. ;O)

Oh my gosh, there is so much more...
I can't stand it.
I hope I keep with this current obsession for some time.
At least I'm learning a lot that actually matters.

I've been listening to my Spring Awakening soundtrack for the majority of the day.
When I heard about S.A., I threw myself into the history of the play *Written in 1890 and banned because of mature content* and the story of how the modern musical came to be.
I read the book in an hour.

GAH!

I LOVE CULTURE!

2 comments:

  1. Hey, if you ever get the chance you should absolutely check out the play "Amadeus". TJC and Dallas will have it every so often. It follows the history more accurately, and when done well, really pulls you in. (I have seen the “not so well” Amadeus… it turns into a terrible comedic performance) Also, you should totally name your first born “Wolfgang". I didn’t have the guts...:)

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