Lucian Msamati's Salieri is more divided into a public and a private self, with the sleekness of the public self never ruffled (except in the Constanze scene), and the way he operates is very much a polished professional performer and courtier.

Oooh, that's interesting. I didn't notice that about the Princess Elisabeth scene but now that you mention it I see it. I think it also has a lot to do with the difference between a movie and play structure. I'd always thought that movies had more freedom because you can do amazing things like the way they combine the music and the cinematography, as we've discussed -- but it's also true that plays allow one to do things one can't do in a more realistic movie, like have Salieri's private self be part of the action (e.g., in the middle of an opera shown on stage) and thereby show that this is his private-not-public self. And of course you could never get away with all the emotion in the monologues that Msamati puts into it. So there can be a much sharper distinction between public and private. Whereas Abraham has to put his emotions in the public scenes because it just wouldn't work if we didn't see them there.