Amadeus Trivia Questions

Answer: He's a fiend.

Mozart asks Stanzi to marry him while playing the "backwards game". Once she translates his request, she coyly says, "No! I'm not going to marry you. You're a fiend!" She soon changes her tune, however, after Mozart performs his first successful opera for Emperor Joseph.

Answer: Choosing Mozart might look like the Emperor is playing favorites

Salieri tells the Emperor he wants to protect him from any appearance of showing favoritism. Princess Elizabeth rolls her eyes at this, seeing the truth much more clearly than her uncle. In the director's cut, Salieri also suggests that Mozart has taken advantage of female music students in the past.

Answer: Emmanuel Schickaneder

Emmanuel Schickaneder was a prominent Viennese theater owner and fellow freemason of Mozart. He commissioned "The Magic Flute" ("Die Zauberflote") and is credited with creating the libretto for this beloved opera. (In truth he was probably a key collaborator.) The role of Papageno was originally written for Schickaneder. Since he appears in so many scenes in the movie (as he should), I wonder if other spoken references to him wound up on the cutting room floor.

Answer: the Pope

He plays the harpsicord blindfolded, then repeats the same tune on the violin.

Answer: Count Orsini-Rosenberg

The Count is constantly belittling Mozart and his music. During a discussion with the Emperor about Mozart, Baron Van Swieten mentions a Mozart opera and describes it as brilliant, to which Orsini-Rosenberg responds with a scathing criticism that includes this line.

Answer: Weber

Stanzi's mother drags her over to meet the Emperor after Mozart's debut performance in Vienna. Mozart introduces Frau Weber to the Emperor as his landlady.

Answer: They were originals, but had no errors or erase marks

Mozart never made a single error when writing his music. Everything was finished in his head before he wrote it down on paper.

Answer: one

Only Karl Thomas is shown in the movie, and the child never says a word! In truth, Constanze gave birth to a son, Franz Xaver Wolfgang, in July 1791, 5 months before Mozart died. This pregnancy/child was never shown or mentioned in the movie! (There has been some speculation about the paternity of Franz Xaver.) Of the six children, Karl Thomas and Franz Xaver Wolfgang were the only two who survived into adulthood. Salieri actually taught Karl Thomas as a composition student after Mozart's death. He taught him for free.

Answer: the Archbishop

He makes an embarrassing late appearance, because he's fooling around with Constanza.

Answer: Milos Foreman and Saul Zaentz

Foreman and Zaentz Director and Producer, Foreman won an Oscar for Best Director for both of these films. Rose and McEveety Director and Producer of "Immortal Beloved"; Polanski and Evans Director and Producer of "Chinatown" Mann and Lowry Director and Producer of "The Last of the Mohicans".

Answer: Emperor Joseph

The Emperor modestly downplays the enthusiastic response he receives from his advisors after he plays the welcome march that Salieri composed in honor of Mozart's arrival in Vienna. Mozart himself would have never said something so modest! Salieri would have said it, but not meant it.

Answer: Salieri

Lorl will only tell Mozart that she was sent by an anonymous admirer, but she can later be seen telling Salieri all about Mozart's daily activities, for which Salieri compensates her handsomely. Lorl was played by Cynthia Nixon, who is best known for her role as Miranda Hobbes on "Sex and the City".

Answer: Musical chairs

Mozart's penalty for failing to find a chair was to play a tune in the styles of Bach and Salieri. All are highly amused by Mozart's negative imitation of Salieri... except the composer himself, who watched behind a mask.

Answer: Cynthia Nixon

Miranda Hobbes, ca. 1984. I cannot find letters or evidence that Salieri's mole/maid actually existed. Does anyone know if there is any factual basis for her?

Answer: Don Giovanni

The ghost of Don Giovanni's father is played by a midget.

Answer: Antonio Salieri

The film opens with an aged Antonio Salieri, now confined to an insane asylum, confessing to the murder of Mozart.

Answer: Baron Van Swieten

When the Emperor commissions an opera from Mozart, Mozart suggests a libretto that is set in a brothel in Turkey. The idea is strongly opposed by the Emperor's advisors, even Van Swieten, one of Mozart's supporters.

Answer: "Love."

Salieri balks at the suggestion that love is solely a German virtue, remarking sarcastically, "Oh yes, we Italians know nothing about love." To which Mozart responds, "No, I don't believe you do."

Answer: The space for his wedding bed

Mozart's passion for his work convinces the Emperor to lift the ban on the play and let Mozart proceed with his opera.

Answer: F. Murray Abraham

Ironically, Salieri (Abraham) finally beat Wolfgang (Hulce) at something! Sam Waterston was also nominated for Best Actor in "The Killing Fields" and Simon Callow is the actor who played Schickaneder (not nominated). Maurice Jarre, who won the 1984 Oscar for original score ("A Passage to India") remarked that he was glad that Mozart was not eligible for nomination!

Answer: sugar rolls

There are numerous indications of Salieri's sweet tooth throughout the film.

Answer: Madame Cavalieri

Madame Cavalieri arrives for her singing lessons with Salieri, decked out in a garish Turkish outfit that Salieri finds very amusing. Rumors of Mozart's new opera have already begun to leak out in the musical community in Vienna, and the ambitious and aggressive Cavalieri is determined to claim a leading role in the production.

Answer: Emperor Joseph

In the film, Salieri had written the march, and Emperor Joseph asked to play it when Mozart came in. The march as Mozart "improves" it in the film is actually "Non Piu Andrai, Farfallone Amoroso" from "The Marriage of Figaro".

Answer: The Emperor yawns

As Salieri describes it to the priest, one yawn from the Emperor means that the opera will only run for nine performances.