I've got some exciting public scholarship opportunities coming up this summer! It would be great if I had a stable job to keep doing this work!
Also, I would like to be able to write an article on Schubert's and FXW Mozart's reference letters without unsuccessful job documents being too relatable.
Another shout out to Medievalists!!
A reminder for all your public scholarly needs: the link in the quoted post is for publications and podcasts that take pitches.
This link is for those who haven't done public scholarly work before but have a lot to say about Emperors, Popes, and Anti-Popes.
If anyone is free at 3pm EDT on April 24 and wants to hear some works-in-progress talks about Salieri reception history, the Encounters with Eighteenth-Century Music series has you covered!
encounters.secm.org/events/salie...
If you are approved, it can still be weeks or months before you have something in hand. If it is determined that further processing or additional documents are needed, that can be even longer (and could have seemingly inconsistent outcomes depending on who--or, apparently, what--gets your file).
Apart from the sheer injustice of Adé's case, I don't think a lot of people realize just how slowly the application process moves and how difficult it can be to get specific information about where you are and when you might have a decision.
For a variety of reasons, this case of a postdoc being denied PR because "AI" invented job duties totally separate from her submitted education and work experience (and then penalizing her for not meeting them) terrifies and infuriates me. As it should you.
18th- and 19th-century composer biography, queer and feminist musicology, gossip and anecdote,
crime fiction on music, the use of sources in historical fiction. Also, an eccentric music critic turned historian of homosexuality named Edward Prime-Stevenson. And weird stories about Antonio Salieri.
This sounds like a job for @amsafterdark.bsky.social
As a musicologist, I was definitely taught about the mythmaking re: the weather during Mozart's burial as a kind of cautionary tale. But it was more a case of "double-check claims that technically fall outside of our expertise but seem a little too narratively convenient" than specific to weather.
I just watched @acollierastro.bsky.social's YouTube video on this and--in addition to everything she says about this sort of person as an instructor and colleague--I can't help but think "what about the people who unsuccessfully applied for his position who don't use 'AI' to do their work for them?"
I've written this blogpost on ICE protest chants & songs, w/ a large section of transcriptions of singing at protests by faith leaders and the Singing Resistance. It also includes songs about ICE agents' perceived masculinity issues and new songs protesting ICE. medium.com/@norikomanab...
Bonus! If you want to explore a different take on the play, I highly recommend the National Theatre revival, available via their National Theatre at Home streaming service. It stars Lucian Msamati (who you may have seen in Conclave) as Salieri and asks some similar questions about truth and gossip.
A man (uncredited), implied to be Peter Shaffer, is seated in front of an electric typewriter at a desk crowded with things (papers, plants, a pair of glasses, a mostly empty whiskey tumblr).
6. If you've heard me blather on about Peter Shaffer, you know that the man never stopped revising, rewriting, or adding to Amadeus. I recommend the 2001 edition of the play, since it contains essays by Shaffer and director Peter Hall on some (but not all) ways the script changed since 1979.
Alexander Pushkin (Jack Farthing) at a desk, writing the title page of Mozart and Salieri. All we see are his hands, a pen, and a sheet of paper.
5. There are many editions and adaptations of Mozart and Salieri (1830) out there. (I even own one published by a Soviet press in the 1970s with an editorial commentary absolutely endorsing the poisoning rumor!) Nancy Anderson's 2000 edition of the complete "little tragedies" commentary is useful.
![Salieri (Paul Bettany) conducting the finale of La scuola de' gelosi to a crowded theatre. The captioning reads "It was such a hit, in fact, that my librettist De Ponte [sic] and I even considered a sequel.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:34mz7c7xjsdabjsjmstqnroi/bafkreicci6pqsnztnewpe72kbgafss7urkogb3vkqcht5adq5fcwigqh2u)
Salieri (Paul Bettany) conducting the finale of La scuola de' gelosi to a crowded theatre. The captioning reads "It was such a hit, in fact, that my librettist De Ponte [sic] and I even considered a sequel.
4 (continued). The Novellos' interview with Constanze is also an early source for the claim (later substantiated by archival research by Bruce Alan Brown and John Rice) that Salieri was originally supposed to write Così fan tutte.
Franz Süssmayr (Jyuddah Jaymes) seated alone in the middle of a large sofa in Salieri's study. A desk covered in papers and books sits in front of him. The captioning reads "well, I don't want to feel as if I'm engaging in subterfuge."
4 (continued). Although their planned Mozart biography never materialized, the Novello's interview notes (published in 1955 as A Mozart Pilgrimage) reflect the aged Constanze's thoughts on a variety of topics, including Süssmayr and Salieri.
Constanze (Gabrielle Creevy) opens her door to meet Pushkin (Jack Farthing). The captioning reads "My name is Alexander Pushkin."
4. Alexander Pushkin never interviewed Constanze Mozart, but the English music publishers Vincent and Mary Novello sure did. Chances are, if you encounter a work of Mozart fiction where someone travels to meet an aging Constanze or Nannerl Mozart, the author was slightly inspired by the Novellos.
Salieri (Paul Bettany) and a group of unnamed men on a street corner at night. Salieri is handing one man a bag of coins.
3. Salieri paying off the audience to riot during Figaro is entirely fictional, but dubious anecdotes about Salieri spending his wife's inheritance on operatic sabotage were circulating by the 1810s. Otto Deutsch discusses one such error-filled source in his documentary biography of Mozart (1965/6).
Lorenzo Da Ponte (Ényì Okoronkwo) opening a door wearing a robe and looking slightly disheveled. The captioning reads "You've caught me at an inopportune time."
2. The Memoirs of Lorenzo Da Ponte (1829) are an obvious source for the depiction of the librettist here, especially when it comes to his complicated feelings about Salieri and the eventual circumstances of his leaving Vienna. There are also multiple editions, including in the NYRB Classics series.
Constanze Mozart (Gabrielle Creevy) in 1826, going through a box of letters.
1. On Leopold Mozart, the Mozarts' married life, Constanze's time in Baden, and remarks on various musical events: the Mozart family letters, available in various editions and translations. Emily Anderson's The Letters of Mozart and His Family (1938) is probably the best-known in English.
Cavalieri (Jessica Alexander) standing in front of a music stand in Salieri's study. The captioning reads "I stayed up reading."
Looking for something to read after watching (the 2025 television adaptation of) Amadeus? Here's a short thread! These aren't necessarily the most reliable sources--I might do a more scholarly thread next week--but they are the things I thought of at specific moments while watching the show.
As someone who has done some work on gender and sexuality in music biography, I am normally annoyed when biofictions go the "but what if Constanze had an affair with Süssmayr" route? But (1) Jyuddah Jaymes's Franz came across as so earnest and likable and (2) I was delighted to recognize this duet!
A man, dressed in a vaguely 18th-century greatcoat and tricorner hat, stands on a wooden scaffold outside of a theatre and puts up a poster advertising Antonio Salieri's opera Der Rauchfangkehrer. From the 2025 drama Mozart/Mozart.
Franz Süssmayr (Jyuddah Jaymes) and Constanze Mozart (Gabrielle Creevy), sitting at a keyboard in a pub and singing a duet from Salieri's Der Rauchfangkehrer.
Me: Mozart fictions really do not do enough with Salieri's more meta operas, probably because they require dealing with questions of comedy and also linguistic identity
Both Mozart/Mozart and the new adaptation of Amadeus: so, how do you feel about unexpected references to Der Rauchfangkehrer?
Lorenzo Da Ponte (as played by Ényì Okoronkwo) surrounded by other people in 18th-century coats and wigs at a party. The captioning reads "But I do think I was rather good at the whole priest thing, save for the mistress."
I would pay good money I don't have to watch Ényì Okoronkwo star in a Lorenzo Da Ponte biopic.
Franz Süssmayr (played by Jyuddah Jaymes) sitting in the middle of a large sofa in Salieri's office. The subtitle reads "Well, I don't want to feel as if I'm engaging in subterfuge." There is a desk with various books and papers on it in front of him and a large mirror and candelabra behind him.
Franz Süssmayr, you are very much in the wrong kind of biopic to be making so much sense.
Theresia Salieri (Emma Lowndes) in a candlelit hallway, asking Salieri "But what sins are you looking for when you creep out of here?"
I mean, Leopold Mozart is certainly the tireless giver of unwanted advice that he often is in Mozart fictions, but Da Ponte, Süssmayr, Bonno,
Theresia Salieri, and others all have their moments of trying to help. Which in a way heightens the psychological tragedy of it all.
Salieri (Paul Bettany) in a restraint with Bonno (William Chubb), asking "Are we talking about our feelings, Giuseppe?"
The lead characters are also a lot less alone than in the film or some versions of the play. They are constantly giving, seeking, or receiving advice from friends and family. It just rarely comes at a time when it can be taken to heart or with full knowledge of what is going on.
Joseph II (Rory Kinnear) in a crowded war room, telling Salieri "there's no time for a music lesson today, I'm afraid, Antonio."
This becomes increasingly clear
as Joseph becomes preoccupied with the war, while Salieri and Mozart are concerned with their respective operas and intrigues. There's a great scene where Salieri misses a genuine (and rare) moment of artistic reflection from Joseph because of how it is framed.
There are multiple scenes where characters talk in a space where other things are happening and it is unclear if the particular thing that Salieri, Mozart, or Constanze happens to find most important at the time is actually of concern to
others.
I like the monologues! The snarky asides about Beethoven and Rossini nearly always get cut, and they are great! But also, this is a very, very long play and Paul Scofield was completely right when he (allegedly) told Shaffer to stop adding material to Salieri's narration.