equss vs amadeus by peter shaffer Essay

The storyline of Amadeus, which is based on the original play of the same title written by Peter Shaffer, mainly revolves around the entire life of Mozart and his music. Basically, the movie’s plot is based on the rumor that Salieri poisoned Mozart because of his jealousy to Mozart’s musical talent. Even if the rumor, which had spread over Vienna in the 1820s, clearly turned out not to be true through several historical research, still, the movie Amadeus depicts the fictional life of Mozart and Salieri’s plan to murder him in a realistic way by delicately displacing Mozart’s great works to show Salieri’s intense inferiority to Mozart and his music. The movie’s plot – the story of Mozart’s life in Vienna and his early death – is mainly unfolded with the confession of aged Salieri after his suicide attempt feeling severe guilty conscience that he murders Mozart. Salieri reveals during his confession that he wants to murder Mozart because of his inferiority to the genius of Mozart. With Salieri’s feeling of jealousy to Mozart, the movie develops its storyline based on the musical rivalry and conflict between Mozart and Salieri. Considering the underlying reason of the rivalry – their musical talent – between two characters, Mozart’s music works as an essential role to move forward the plot of the film. By arranging Mozart’s music at the episodes that cause Salieri to feel

Produced by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1787, Don Giovanni is regarded as one the best operas ever made. The piece is based on the legend of Don Juan, an illusory libertine and seducer of women (Kerns, 2010). At first, Mozart’s opera seems more like a story of the romantic adventures of a dissolute nobleman and his disgrace. However, there is much more to Don Giovanni than just a series of events and serious laughs, just as the protagonist is much more than a notorious, single-minded, and unprincipled seducer. Closer examination of the piece reveals its core themes of social classes and divisions as depicted by Leporello’s complaints about his servitude to his employer in the first scene (Mozart, Fisher, & Ponte, 2007). The play also touches on vital human traits and principles, including loyalty, faithfulness, and sincerity. More importantly, Don Giovanni centers on the ambiguity intrinsic to human relations, the intricate connection between life and death, and the interminable tension between love and the risk of its extermination.

The internal conflict that Dysart deals with is with himself and deciding whether taking away the passion and life from his patients that he envies for is fair or not. This then ties into the the theme of normality, because by taking his patient's faith aways - like Alan’s - he is taking away their originality. Although Dysart is primarily focusing on Alan as his patient throughout the entirety of the play, the underlying story in the play is about Dysart trying to find himself, like Alan already has, even if it is

A comparison of two major Baroque composers: Claudio Monteverdi and Domenico Scarlatti The purpose of this paper is to analyze two psalms by Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi (1567-1643) and Giovanni Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757) and compare and contrast the two pieces to find out how music changed throughout the Baroque period.

Produced by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1787, Don Giovanni is regarded as one the best operas ever made. The piece is based on the legend of Don Juan, an illusory libertine and seducer of women (Kerns, 2010). At first, Mozart’s opera seems more like a story of the romantic adventures of a dissolute nobleman and his disgrace. However, there is much more to Don Giovanni than just a series of events and serious laughs, just as the protagonist is much more than a notorious, single-minded, and unprincipled seducer. Closer examination of the piece reveals its core themes of social classes and divisions as depicted by Leporello’s complaints about his servitude to his employer in the first scene (Mozart, Fisher, & Ponte, 2007). The play also touches on vital human traits and principles, including loyalty, faithfulness, and sincerity. More importantly, Don Giovanni centers on the ambiguity intrinsic to human relations, the intricate connection between life and death, and the interminable tension between love and the risk of its extermination.

Historically, there is evidence from Mozart's own written letters that there was some sort of antagonism between Salieri and Mozart, "If he is allied with Salieri, I won't ever get a thing out of him." Be it jealousy or a difference in personality, one cannot say, however, the conflict between Salieri's mediocrity and Mozart's genius is evident throughout the play. Salieri himself is musically competent, he has been educated and has learnt the skills of music and so is able to recognise Mozart's greatness, however, he seems to be the only one in Mozart's age to have recognised it, ."..my only reward...is to be the sole man alive in this time who shall clearly recognize your Incarnation!" He shows his obvious awareness of Mozart's posterity and his own "mediocrity." We can see Salieri and Mozart in the light of Nietzsche's opposing struggle of the Apollian and Dionysian personalities. Mozart embodies the Dionysian elements of a

As the occasion arose Haydn tried his hand in a variety of musical genres, composing sacred works, and pieces of instrumental music. He attracted the attention of music-loving patrons. For several years before he served as music director to Count Karl Joseph Franz Morzin (1717-83), in 1757 or 58, Haydn worked for the family of Baron Carl Joseph Fürnberg (ca.1727-67),

‘Peter Shaffer’ uses ‘Equus’ as a device to standardize and make the abnormal acceptable. In reality many of the themes and actions dealt with challenge our sense of normality so by introducing an element of innocence into Strang’s character, we as an audience, are suddenly forced to connect and sympathise for him. The innocence is ultimately illustrated by Strang’s worship and love for Equus. Without the element of innocence it would be difficult to forgive his defiance of the ‘comfortable view’ of what is normal. Yet without the defiance we would be unable to forgive him for fitting the societies view of what is normal. Essentially this innocence is the element, which balances the personality of Alan Strang beautifully. Interestingly these are the very elements that Dysart is lacking. ‘That's what his stare has been

However, it is clear that with this invite, there are certain expectations, as the Prefect of the Imperial Library, Van Sweiten, criticizes Mozart for not choosing “more elevated themes” once becoming a Mason (68). Their discussion includes Van Sweiten’s defense of operas full of gods and goddesses, stating, “they represent the eternal in us,” (Shaffer 2001, 69). Yet, Mozart has no patience for this pressure to conform, wanting to string complex notes together to make “a sound entirely new,” and believing their job as a composers is to “combine the inner minds of…chambermaids and Court Composers—and turn the audience into God,” (Shaffer 2001, 70). Similar to Carmen in Georges Bizet’s Carmen, Mozart is fighting "a social system more concerned with maintaining order than providing personal freedom,” (Slater 1987, 2). Furthermore, Shaffer is fascinated by Mozart’s genius, preluding his play that it is the only state “that is unaffected by fashion and indifferent to competition…Only genius makes its own rules” (Shaffer 2001, viii). While Salieri had accepted his role as a musician, Amadeus’s fight against society’s restrictions placed on him both fascinates him and terrifies him at the same time. Salieri utilizes this weakness to manipulate him into setting up his own

One of the most important themes in Shakespeare’s play, Twelfth Night, is the theme of madness. It is one of the driving forces to this play. Madness plays a key role due to the effect it has on the many people themselves. Just like in our world, we notice the madness. We know the madness is there. We know that others are aware of its presence as well. The only thing we don’t do, is find the purpose for it. As humans, we don’t try to find reason or sanity with the madness in this world. In fact, we go along with it. That’s why the roles of madness is so important.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is known as one of the greatest classical composers of all time and the famous child prodigy. It is indeed a fact that Mozart was a genius in playing an instrument at a young age and was competent enough to perform in front of royalties. However, composing for Mozart is not ingenuity but instead a talent that was developed over time. There are many factors in Mozart’s life that led to his popularity today that is not just because of his talent.

Johann Sebastian Bach, a composer from the Baroque period, is one of the most influential and famous composers of all time. Examples of some famous musicians he has influenced are, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Mahler, and Robert Schumann. Bach wrote over a thousand works, and many of them are masterpieces which people still listen to today. This paper covers his life and upbringing to see what he went through as a composer. A list of Bach’s surviving works is provided at the end of the paper. We will discover if he was as famous as he is today and why he is known as one of the greatest composers of all time.

Hitchcock’s and Foucault’s treatment of madness were different. In their attempts to render madness through different appeals to the avant-garde Hitchcock and Foucault both exemplify the modernist tradition of schizophilia. French sociologist Rene Lourau coined the term “Schizopilia”, a cultural practice where the mad are frequently depicted as dangerous, monstrous, and symptoms of madness are constantly appropriated for creative and critical endeavours. Hitchcock approached madness by exploring the real and he was equally interested in surrealism’s dependence on the irrational. In this aspect both Foucault and Hithcock was working on the same line when they approached madness. By positioning Psycho in the context of deinsituionalization

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a brilliant composer from the classical era. He lived a short life; however, he was able to compose many great pieces of music before he passed away. One of his famous pieces is his Eine Kleine Nachtmusik piece that he wrote in 1787. The piece can be observed as good from a Christian perspective. Art is meant to be felt and not just heard or seen.

      It has been demonstrated that Shakespeare's portrayal of madness parallels Bright's A Treatise of Melancholie (Wilson 309-20), yet, the medical model alone is insufficient to describe the madness of Shakespeare’ s King Lear. Shakespeare was not limited to a single book in his understanding of madness; he had at his disposal the sum total of his society's understanding of the issue. Since Lear's madness is derived from a mixture of sources, it can only be effectively described in this larger context.