A play by British playwright Peter Schaeffer, the world premiere of which took place in 1979 on the stage of the Royal National Theater of Great Britain. Schaeffer's source of inspiration when writing Amadeus was the “little tragedy” of A.S. Pushkin “Mozart and Salieri”, as well as the opera of the same name by N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov. Before starting work, Schaeffer read a lot of literature about Mozart, including his letters, which he characterized as “written as if written by an eight-year-old child.” That is why his image of the great composer turned out to be so spontaneous, cheeky, and frivolous. Schaeffer's play was often accused of artistic sloppiness: according to contemporaries, it is unlikely that the hostility between Mozart and Salieri reached the heights described by the author. One of the main characters of the play is Mozart's music. During the action, you can hear excerpts from the composer’s most famous operas: “The Abduction from the Seraglio”, “The Marriage of Figaro”, “Don Giovanni”, “The Magic Flute”. In 1984, Czech director Milos Forman made the film “Amadeus” based on Schaeffer’s play. The film won numerous awards, including an Oscar for Best Picture and Best Screenplay.