"Amadeus was inspired by Mozart and Salieri, a short play by Aleksandr Pushkin and later adapted into an opera of the same name by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Shaffer then adapted the play for a film released in 1984," according to Wikipedia. Above Murray Abraham in the role of a lifetime as Mozart's tormented rival Antonio Salieri.
Our old friend Sippy reminds us that this date, January 27, is the 254th anniversary of the birth of the "beloved of God," Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with a clip from that most totally awesome of movies (We're Republican so watch movies, not films), Amadeus. This quotation by the beloved of God's tormented rival Salieri, as spoken in old age within the asylum, is heart stopping:
On the page it looked nothing. The beginning simple, almost comic. Just a pulse - bassoons and basset horns - like a rusty squeezebox. Then suddenly - high above it - an oboe, a single note, hanging there unwavering, till a clarinet took over and sweetened it into a phrase of such delight! This was no composition by a performing monkey! This was a music I'd never heard. Filled with such longing, such unfulfillable longing, it had me trembling. It seemed to me that I was hearing the very voice of God.
Don't know whether that was the sheer genius and poetry of screenwriter Peter Shaffer or adapted from Salieri's journals, but it's music to our ears. Click here to hear "the very voice of God" at Vladimir Horowitz's fingertips.
One of my all time favorite movies. A memory of watching it with my late brother.
Am glad you reminded me of the movie (I call them films because of years in English schools!). Those scenes with buffoon courtiers will cheer me up during what will be a trying SOTU. I liked Gerard's posting of Bush's SOTU from 2002.
Posted by: retriever | January 27, 2010 at 08:05 PM
Nice going Mr. President. You managed to lie about the effect of a Supreme Court decision to their faces, you ignorant whelp!
Posted by: Gayle Miller | January 28, 2010 at 10:14 AM
My all time favorite movie - saw it with my Mom and Dad at Christmastime 1984...I watch it every year during the holidays. Of course, the music is the star, but it has a great supporting cast!
Posted by: Lee Merrick | January 28, 2010 at 10:34 AM
Turns out Barak Obama did read the erotic book by Russian famous author Alexander Pushkin (1799-1837) who was black. See http://russianliterature.blogspot.com
Posted by: david bay | February 05, 2010 at 09:18 PM