![]() ![]() Their work serves a production as superb and sublime as Mozart’s immortal music.AMADEUS is a Responsive WP Theme made with the emphasis on unique look and classic elegance. Heidi Newell’s gorgeous, exquisite costumes represent the ultimate in the ornate finery of the period, well complemented by cast member Garner’s makeup. Ingrid Garner is aptly languid and blasé as Katherina Cavalieri, the object of Salieri’s lust, and her housemaid Lorl is fearful and confused after Salieri sends her to spy on Mozart. Downs is soft-spoken and respectful as Father Vogler and cheerful and exuberant as Mozart’s actor friend Schickaneder. Phil Brickey’s Count Orsini-Rosenberg and Larry Creagan’s Baron Van Swieten are aptly stern, stuffy and judgmental as the emperor’s chief advisors. His stance as a dabbler in music is epitomized by his halting, childlike attempts to play a simple tune on the harpsichord. Glenn Freeze’s Emperor Joseph II is mentally vapid, a benevolent dictator awash in the splendor of his royal apparel – gleaming white and gold brocade with a red sash. Brian Page is suitably grumpy and ursine as Mozart’s overbearing father Leopold, the ultimate stage parent who mercilessly pushed the musical phenom from age 5, but misses the character’s hauteur. McGee and Donze’s chemistry makes both the couple’s passion and their strife feel equally real. She navigates the most practical course for Mozart, berating him in private but always fiercely protecting him. McGee also delivers the sight of Mozart’s physical suffering brought on by overwork, alcoholism and poverty, his hair sweaty and matted, his body racked with pain, his mind racked with fear as Salieri’s final, most diabolical plot begins to take full effect.īriana Donze at first shows Mozart’s wife Constanze as bubbly and lighthearted before revealing her steely will. His high, giggly laugh and fixation on lowbrow humor are products of a mind so hyperactive as to require constant diversion. McGee’s Mozart is articulate and unmistakably brilliant, giddy with pleasure at his own cleverness yet humble and courteous in the presence of the emperor. While polishing his own apple, he subtly denigrates Mozart yet remains politic in remarks about him. Sullivan shows the younger Salieri as pompous and rather dimwitted yet sly, his eyes narrowing as he appraises each new situation. Parrish delivers the roller coaster of Salieri’s emotional states from exhilaration to despondency and desperation while ensuring that we view him, in all his self-loathing, as the patron saint of mediocrity. Sullivan and Parrish often mirror each other, letting us see young and old Salieri side by side. Newell’s handling of the script gets the most out of Shaffer’s work, his criss-cross staging placing the audience around, and in close proximity to, the actors. Shaffer also cannily shows that, as with mega-celebrities of today, those surrounding Mozart are constantly jockeying for any edge for themselves. Salieri, who once idolized Mozart, comes to despise the Austrian prodigy – yet always feigns admiration, support and solidarity.Įach flashback is followed by older Salieri’s commentary, creating additional layers of emotional complexity. We see the famed composer’s first meeting with the then-young Salieri (Steven Sullivan), the emperor’s official court composer. The rest of “Amadeus” is Salieri’s account, traced by his narration and description of each scene, of the 1781 arrival of Mozart (Nick McGee) at the court of Emperor Joseph II of Austria and the subsequent events leading to his death, at age 34, a decade later. Now embittered and forgotten, and nearing the end of his life, he summons Father Vogler (Rob Downs) and confesses responsibility for Mozart’s death. Shaffer’s framing device involves composer Antonio Salieri (Joe Parrish). ![]() Director Brian Newell has assembled a sterling cast, then surrounded them with a sturdy production design highlighted by his dramatic use of Mozart’s music. Those qualities and more are on full display in Maverick Theater’s new staging. ![]() Known for the dramas “Equus” and “The Royal Hunt of the Sun,” Shaffer approaches “Amadeus” the same way, creating complex, intriguing and watchable characters told from a distinct, and deliberately biased, point of view. Not likely, though, that any other dramatization of the great and prolific composer’s life would have resonated with the compelling qualities of Shaffer’s 1979 play and 1984 film adaptation. Had Peter Shaffer not written “Amadeus,” it’s entirely possible that some other playwright might have taken on Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart as his subject. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |