Editing Amadeus (play) (section)

==Plot==
''Since the play's original run, Shaffer extensively revised his play, including changes to plot details; the following is common to all revisions.''

The composer Salieri is an old man, having long outlived his fame. Speaking directly to the audience, he claims to have used poison to assassinate Mozart and promises to explain himself. The action then [[flashback (continuity)|flashes back]] to the eighteenth century, at a time when Salieri, then the court composer of the Austrian emperor, has not met Mozart but has heard of him and his music. He adores Mozart's compositions and is thrilled at the chance to meet him, during a [[salon (gathering)|salon]] honouring his patron. But when he finally catches sight of Mozart, he is deeply disappointed to find the composer lacking the grace and charm of his compositions. Mozart is crawling around on his hands and knees, engaging in profane talk with his future bride [[Constanze Weber]].

Salieri cannot reconcile Mozart's boorish behaviour with the genius that God has inexplicably bestowed upon him. A devout Catholic all his life, Salieri cannot believe that God would choose Mozart over him for such a gift. Salieri renounces God and vows to do everything in his power to destroy Mozart as a way of retaliating against his Creator. Salieri pretends to be Mozart's ally to his face while doing his utmost to destroy his reputation and any success his compositions may have. Mozart's own fortunes are not helped due to his vulgar nature. On more than one occasion, only the intervention of Emperor [[Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor|Joseph II]] allows Mozart to continue (interventions which Salieri opposes and then is all too happy to take credit for when Mozart assumes it was ''he'' who intervened). Salieri humiliates Constanze by forcing her to strip naked in front of him when she comes to him for help. He [[smear campaign|smears]] Mozart's character with the Imperial Court, ruining many opportunities for the composer.

A major theme in ''Amadeus'' is Mozart's repeated attempts to win the acceptance of Vienna's aristocracy with increasingly brilliant compositions, which are always frustrated either by Salieri's machinations or because the aristocrats cannot appreciate Mozart's innovations and willingness to challenge the accepted mores of classical music. 

Towards the end of the play, with his life completely ruined, Mozart is visited one last time by Salieri, who reveals he has been Mozart's enemy all along. After hearing this, Mozart breaks down and is left totally defeated, singing a nursery tune. He later dies in Constanze's arms.

Salieri recounts on how he was praised throughout Europe for more than 30 years, after which audiences began to turn away from his music and toward that of Mozart, as the world finally comes to recognize his true genius. Salieri then reveals that he left a false confession of having murdered Mozart with arsenic in a last attempt to be remembered, and attempts to commit suicide with a razor. He survives and his confession is met with disbelief and eventually rejected. Defeated, Salieri, doomed to live the rest of his life in obscurity and failure, absolves the audience of their mediocrity.