I love Salieri observing the factions fighting out for influence, determined not to make enemies (the way he looks at both sides, allies and friends in both factions) and then staying carefully neutral with a witty comment. Then he effortlessly writes his lovely march and thanks God. All is well in life. All this is about to start crumbling down, the moment he meets Wolfgang. This movie is an endless wonder.
When the Emperor says he wants an opera in German, the Director says 'Italian is the proper language for opera. All educated people agree on that." In other words, he just insulted the Emperor by calling him "uneducated", and didn't even realize it.
I think he very well knew what he said. he wants to uphold the tradition of Italian opera and is aware of the Emperor's insecurities about his own intellectual flaws. by stating an opinion about a matter he is supposedly well-versed in and then adding the caveat about 'educated people', he is saying 'Majesty, either you agree with me, or you you would have to admit you are uneducated.'
Despite the movie making it about language, such rivalry between german and Italian music truly existed, extending to aesthetic differences, and indeed, The Kidnaping of the Seraglio was a investment in the Singspiel(German play with songs) genre, followed by Magic Flute, which was the first great work in full german style and regarded as the birth of german opera. "Too many notes" is perfect, as the napolitan school had more simple orchestration and focus on melodies and the German style focused on polyfony and orchestral variety.
Salieri was born in Italy but spent almost his whole life in Vienna. His contemporaries regarded him as a german composer. Mozart, on the other hand, was musically spoken very italian.
I like the fact the debate about Italian or German as a proper language for opera shows the societal changes that happened in the late 18th century. German would’ve been unthinkable in a national theatre before, but due to the rise of the middle class and increasing upward mobility, there was increasing demand for it, since they commonly couldn’t speak Italian and French, unlike the nobility
