Dubious Anecdote:

MOZART KILLED BY SALIERI VIA POISON

- Story’s Context
o Mozart’s death in 1791 at the age of 35 in an apartment that he rented in Vienna in
1791(1)
o He was writing a requiem commissioned by Franz van Walsegg anonymously to which
created the myth of the stranger that would have given Mozart the poison(2)
 Although these allegations were never taken seriously
o Mozart had suffered many different illnesses throughout his life and although his actual
cause of death was not clearly documented, there is enough proof in the illnesses
documented prior to his death to prove that he was not in fact, poisoned.
- How musicologists have critiqued it
o They have revealed later on that Mozart did not die from poisoning from Salieri
o He has most likely died from syphilis or related diseases are what caused his death(3)
o From letters from leopold his father, they found out that Mozart had suffered quite a
few illnesses
o Accounts of key witnesses of Mozart’s death, Constance Mozart and Sophie haibel
o An extensive document by the Physician Dr. Guldener Von Lobes
o Reports of illnesses that were circulating around where Mozart was at the time of his
death
- Where did it come from?
o It began as a semi plausible rumor that had reached quite a number of people as it was
published in an article in a Berlin Newspaper (new York times)
 Later spread like wild fire
 Beethoven wrote about it in his letters
 As well as Rimsky Korsakov
- How does it appear in conflicting sources?
o It seemed quite plausible that Salieri had murdered Mozart back then as although they
noted all deaths in Vienna back then, they were not necessarily required to note causes
of deaths as it created more paperwork for those noting the death and the deceased’s
family.
- More recent media? (film, fiction, program notes, etc.)
o Amadeus the movie
 Movie adaptation of Peter Schaffer’s 1979 stage play.
o Pushkin’s Little Tragedies
- Is there something else at play in the story that seems worthy of analysis beyond what appears
in your article?
o It’s interesting to note that although people have deemed his death not murder, one
can’t help but think of the fact that there is no actual concrete evidence of this. Could it
be perhaps possible that through the cocktail of illnesses that Mozart had accumulated,
that he could also have been discreetly poisoned to which accelerated his death?