"Amadeus", Beloved of God. A prodigy who composed his first concerto at four, his first symphony at five. A man whose virtuosity allows him to finish his works in his mind so that "the rest is just scribbling". Undeniable musical brilliance, charm and verve: this is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. This is true genius.

Antonio Salieri, court composer to the Emperor Joseph II, is a prolific young man at the Hapsburg court. Leading a virtuous life, he expects God to grant him fame. A bargain centered on the one and only thing that makes life worth living: music. It's the idea of an absolute upon which the composer has erected his existence. Take away the music, and the man will fall.

And so he does. When Mozart appears at the Hapsburg court, Salieri soon realises that the little man's skills greatly surpass his own. They cast a shadow of mediocrity on his life, an illness from which he shall never recover. Has God decided to shift his favour?

Salieri's desperate disbelief is deepening when he witnesses something else in Mozart: childishness, naïve arrogance, and coarseness. How can genius and vulgarity undergo such an ill-chosen alliance?

Hovering over an emptied inner self, Salieri declares war on God. Mozart shall be the battleground since he is the flute that God plays so relentlessly. Intrigue and sabotage are the most prominent tools, which Salieri seizes, and in fact, the rival composer is weakened considerably, first financially, then psychically. He dies in poverty.

Thirty years after Mozart's death, a rumour is spread throughout the whole of Vienna: Salieri is said to have poisoned Mozart. The source: the Italian himself. And here we are, right at the beginning of the play. Feeling embittered by age and his past, Salieri addresses the audience to confess all sins he has ever committed. In an extended flashback, he takes us back to the most beautiful and most devastating moments of his life and career. Forgiveness is impossible, but is understanding? How did all this come to pass? And did Salieri really murder Mozart?

Peter Shaffer's "Amadeus" was first performed at the Royal National Theatre in London in 1979. It has been a theatrical hit ever since and is regularly staged all around the globe. The popularity of the story about Mozart and Salieri was taken even further by the impact of Milos Forman's film adaptation in 1984, which won eight Oscars, including best picture, best director, and best actor.