Confutatis

I watched Amadeus with my mom on Mother's Day, it's her favorite, and was absolutely amazed by the scene very near to the end of the movie when Mozart is dictating Confutatis from the Requiem Mass in Latin to Salieri. While I know very, very little musical theory, I was transfixed by the scene with it's myriad of musical terms flying between these two musically learned men, the amazing acting of F. Murray Abraham and Tom Hulce, and of course, the third actor in any scene of the movie, as described by director Milos Forman, the music (itself).

What I love most about Confutatis is the difference between the ominous sound of the men's choral parts, and the serene, angelic sound of the women's chorus.

The mass itself has had a dark history*:

• Commissioned by a Count to be played on the anniversary of his wife's death
• Mozart died while writing it (unfinished parts would later be completed by other composers)
• One of the following, finishing composers, Joseph Eybler, died of a stroke while conducting a performance of the piece

With all that said, I still recommend listening to this opera.

I can't believe that it took me 25 minutes to write that. (:^O

*Historical accounts were culled from http://www.its.caltech.edu/~tan/Mozartreq/main.html.