What were Antonio Salieris personality characteristics?
Unlike the malevolent monster in Peter Shaffer’s “Amadeus,” the real Antonio Salieri was known for his kindness and generosity. He taught hundreds of students for free, secured pensions for retired musicians, and organized charity concerts for impoverished singers. In his official capacity as Vienna’s court composer, he could be fussy, pompous, and touchy, but his natural warmth and good humor always broke through the crusty facade. “I am easily irritated,” he once admitted, “but more easily pleased.” A devout churchgoer and a devoted family man, he was also a fiercely loyal friend. While he and Mozart had their disagreements and rivalries, he freely acknowledged the younger man’s superior genius and revered his colleague’s memory. In fact, he protected and supported Mozart’s widow and son after Mozart’s untimely death, for which gossip unjustly blamed Salieri. Salieri bore this slander, as he bore his vanishing fame and declining health, with grace, humility, and stoicism. All in all,
