christof's blog

Lonely Genius and Mediocrity

Yesterday I once again watched one, if not my favorite movie: Amadeus. Apart from being a great piece, casted with good actors and framed by eternal music, the film broaches the issue of genius vs. mediocrity.
It was interesting to watch the movie, after I have enjoyed a Stanford business education. The way Mozart behaved, he has probably done everything wrong what you could expect from a person to be effective. Yet, he has become immortal.
My question is: Has he been such a genius because he ignored all the rules - or despite? One thing is for sure: for him personally it didn't pay off and didn't have a happy end. Probably, though, that's exactly the tension that unleashes true genial energy.
I personally derive much satisfaction from working in a team. I like to see many people excel, even if the are only regular guys like myself. Achievements are in general a personal, relative thing. I personally pay at least, if not more respect to a handicapped participating in the paralympics than to the son of a real estate magnate who successfully steps into his family's footsteps.
So is Peter Shaeffer's Salieri the real hero? No, this (fictuous) Salieri has achieved something, but then he became destructive. Rather than learning from or co-operating with the genius, he destroys it. My biggest wish during the play was, that - when Salieri takes the notes for the Requiem - that he repents and would become a genuine help, mentor and tutor for Mozart.
As a team they would have certainly been much more effective.
But would the rewards of such a cooperation have Mozart made complacent? Perhaps he would have spent the money on big parties and died of rheumatic fever anyway.

posted by Christof Wittig @ 11:03 AM