Jak zgubić własny cień? Nawiedzenie przeszłością i przyszłością w musicalu Mozart!

In the article How to Get Rid of Your Shadow? Hauntings of Past and Future in »Mozart!« the Musical, Marek Golonka utilizes the aforementioned play to present his interpretation of the artistic work of its librettist, Michael Kunze. Golonka describes Kunze’s artistic career—particularly his musicals—and points at his persistence in showing historical figures as haunted by metaphorical characters designed to comment on their situation and reflect on their personality.The central point of the paper is the analysis of Mozart!’s most prominent storytelling device—the split of Wolfgang Ama­deus Mozart into two characters: adult, contemporary-dressed Wolfgang, and the child Amadé, dressed to resemble Mozart’s most iconic portraits. In this duo, Wolfgang is visible to the outside world and represents Mozart’s social and emotional needs, whilst Amadé, incorporating Mozart’s talent and creative needs, is visible only to his adult counterpart. Golonka interprets this split as an attempt to show Mozart both as a gifted individual and an Everyman close to the audience. He also points at how this split shows the conflict between Mozart’s own needs and the standards of his father. By analyzing scenes that show Amadé’s haunting presence as a burden for Wolfgang, Golonka reconstructs Kunze’s interpretation of Mozart’s life as a struggle against his own creative discipline that sometimes grows to an all-encompassing obsession.