Character Depth - Antonio Salieri

This one comes to us from Ross Mahler (rmahler on TriggerStreet and is also an active participant in the revolution with his own blog Shares Dream World).


One of the first things that came to my mind, when you mentioned a study of character depth, was Antonio Salieri from Amadeus. Using Vogler the priest as a sounding board, we learn of Salieri’s contradictory nature in regard to his faith. He wavers between worshipping God and battling with him when he cannot fathom why the almighty would choose the obscene Mozart to be his instrument. When Salieri interacts with Katherina Cavalieri, the opera singer he adores (and later loses to Mozart), we get to see the impotence he feels when compared to Wolfgang. In his dealings with Mozart, we see Salieri’s astonishment at the man’s gifts, mixed with his jealousy and contempt for the same man. He both adores his idol and plans his demise. He commissions and then plots to steal Mozart’s requiem and pass it off as his own work, just to achieve Mozart’s level of fame – a project that ultimately destroys both men. He delights in his accomplishments, not unlike Shakespeare’s gloating Richard III, but at the same time, Salieri is so ravaged by guilt that he attempts to take his own life. In the end, he calls himself the patron saint of mediocrity. He simultaneously wrestles with his own inadequacies, guilt, faith, and ultimately with his own choice to live in infamy just so that he can achieve some small measure of immortality, like Mozart.