Mozart in popular culture

The composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) led a life that was dramatic in many respects, including his career as a child prodigy, his struggles to achieve personal independence and establish a career, his brushes with financial disaster, and his death in the course of attempting to complete his Requiem. Authors of fictional works have found his life a compelling source of raw material. Such works have included novels, plays, operas, and films. The listing below include only some prominent items from among thousands.

• Don Juan in 1812,[1], by E. T. A. Hoffmann. Hoffmann also played an important role in establish the critical reputation of Mozart's music.
• Eduard Mörike. Mozart's Journey to Prague (1856).[2]
• Mozart appears in Hermann Hesse's novels Der Steppenwolf [3] and Die Morgenlandfahrt.
• In 1968, David Weiss published Sacred and profane: a novel of the life and times of Mozart,[4] a narrative account on the composer's life drawing heavily on the documented historical record, but with invented conversations and other details.

• Alexander Pushkin's play Mozart and Salieri[5] is based on the supposed rivalry between Mozart and Antonio Salieri, particularly the idea that it was poison received from the latter that caused Mozart's death. This idea is not supported by modern scholarship.[6] Pushkin's play was in turn made the basis of the opera Mozart and Salieri (1897) by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.
• Peter Shaffer's 1979 play Amadeus[7] focuses on the difference between true and sublime genius (Mozart) and mere high-quality craftsmanship (Salieri). Shaffer seems to have been especially taken by the contrast between Mozart's enjoyment of vulgarity (for which historical evidence exists, in the form of his letters to his cousin) and the sublime character of his music. Schaffer's play was converted to a popular movie in 1984 by Milos Forman; far less subtle and factually correct than Schaffer's play.

• Mozart's operas have been filmed a number of times; of these efforts the most celebrated has been Ingmar Bergman's 1975 version of The Magic Flute.
• Mozart's music has been used as background music for a great many films. Perhaps the most conspicuous example was the 1967 film Elvira Madigan, which repeated, over and over, a passage from the slow movement of the Piano concerto K. 467. It became conspicuous in the popular imagination, leading the concerto to be advertised for purposes of concerts and recordings as the "Elvira Madigan" concerto; the practice has gradually receded.

• Peter Schickele, in his P. D. Q. Bach persona, paid 'tribute' to Mozart in several pieces, most notably "Ein Kleines Nachtsmusik" and "A Little Nightmare Music", the latter offering a humorous retelling of Mozart's conflicts with Salieri.

• The 13-part 1991 documentary series Mozart on Tour details Mozart's travels and how they influenced his music.
• The 2004 BBC three-part television series The Genius of Mozart by James Kent told parts of Mozart's life.[8]
• The 2024 BBC Two three-part television series Mozart: Rise of a Genius, narrated by Juliet Stevenson, tells the story of Mozart's life through his and his family's letters, interviews, re-enactments and live performances.[9]

• Solomon, Maynard (1996). Mozart: A Life (1st ed.). New York: Harper Perennial. ISBN 0-06-092692-9. OCLC 34162413.

• Hesse, Hermann (1974). Der Steppenwolf: Erzählung. Suhrkamp Taschenbuch, 175 (in German). Frankfurt: Suhrkamp Verlag. ISBN 978-3-518-36675-2. OCLC 29769128.
• Hoffmann, E. T. A. (1814). "Don Juan". Fantasiestücke in Callot's Manier (in German). Bamberg: Kunz. Retrieved 27 September 2010.
• Mörike, Eduard (1856). Mozart auf der Reise nach Prag (in German) (2nd ed.). J. G. Cotte.
• Pushkin, Alexander (1830). "Motsart i Salyeri". Malenkie tragedii (in Russian).
• Shaffer, Peter (1981). Amadeus (1st ed.). New York: Harper & Row. ISBN 978-0-06-014032-8. OCLC 6791087.
• Weiss, David (1970). Sacred and Profane: A Novel of the Life and Times of Mozart. London: Hodder Paperbacks. ISBN 978-0-340-12803-9. OCLC 26290980.