Mozart and Salieri

Mozart and Salieri is a play by Alexander Pushkin (1799-1837)[]

The original text

The play was written in 1830 as one of his four short plays known as The Little Tragedies, and was published in 1832.

Based on one of the numerous rumours caused by the early death of Mozart, it features only three characters: Mozart, Antonio Salieri, and a non-speaking part in the blind fiddler whose playing Mozart finds hilarious, and Salieri is appalled by.

It was the only one of Pushkin's plays that was staged during his lifetime.

Translations and adaptations

In 1897 the play was adapted as a one-act opera, also called Mozart and Salieri, by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908)[1]

In 1914 is was made into a silent film called Mozart and Salieri by Victor Tourjansky (1891-1976)[2].

In 1962 it was made into a Soviet television drama film with the same name.

In 1979 another Soviet television miniseries called Little Tragedies directed by Mikhail Schweitzer (1920-2000)[3], based on works by Alexander Pushkin. It included an episode based on the play.

Mozart and Salieri was the inspiration for Peter Shaffer's 1979 play Amadeus, which Shaffer adapted for the 1984 film of the same name.