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Peter Shaffer's controversial play Amadeus (1980) explores the enigmas of artistic creativity. What is the source of creativity? Why are some artists favored with prodigious inborn talent while other artists, no less deserving, remain mediocre? What is the relationship between art and madness? These are age-old questions, and they vexed even Freud (1928), who concluded that “Before the problem of the creative artist analysis must, alas, lay down its arms” (p. 177). Wisely or not, psychoanalysts have refused to lay down their arms: Peter Shaffer's plays, in particular, have aroused intense analytic scrutiny (Berman, 1979; Glenn, 1974a, 1974b, 1974c, 1976, 1983; Hamilton, 1979; Slutzky, 1976; Stamm, 1976).
Amadeus focuses on the creativity of two quite different artists, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri. We should say at the outset, however, that while there are parallels between the real and fictional composers, Shaffer has reworked history to suit his own dramatic purposes. There is some biographical evidence to support Shaffer's portrait of Mozart—a young man who demolishes less talented composers, revels in scatalogical jokes, and enjoys sexual conquests. Memorable anecdotes from Marcia Davenport's (1932) biography find their way into the play. For example, when the Emperor Joseph foolishly criticizes an aria for having too many notes, the young composer brashly replies: “Sire, there are just as many notes in it as there ought to be” (Amadeus, p. 29; Davenport, p. 205). Nevertheless, Shaffer's Mozart is a caricature of the musical giant.
Shaffer has reworked history in other ways. The real Leopold Mozart was indeed a manipulative, calculating opportunist who