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Brilliant writer and social commentator Gore Vidal (1925-2012) was of the great wits of his time. There’s a Vidal quote which I love, which I am reminded of, when watching this current production of AMADEUS at the Sydney Opera House. It goes, ‘whenever I hear of the success a friend is having, part of me dies’.
We humans are a competitive lot, even when it comes to our friends.. Perhaps it is built into us, like our DNA?!
Peter Shaffer’s brilliant 1981 play AMADEUS is about competitiveness and its sibling, jealousy. It is a fictional piece though, by historical accounts, there was no love lost between the two ‘combatants’.
The two ‘combatants’, in this case, were/are musicians/composers Antonio Salieri and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Middle aged Antonio Salieri was one of the most genteel, respected and hard working composers of his time. He has been busy following the rise of the brilliant young composer Wolfgang Mozart.
Salieri has heard that Mozart is such a gifted composer that he writes his pieces with little or no effort as if they came directly from God. Word has it also that Mozart is far from a refined person, that he is crude and very child-like.
How can this be?! How can God do this?! How can a man who writes such angelic music, not be angelic in nature?!
It does Salieri’s head in. Salieri can’t cope with the dissonance he feels about it. He plots to poison Mozart.
This is a big/epic production. A lush set.- an endless staircase. Music from some of Mozart’s compositions sung by opera singers. Musicians way up the back. The lighting…The staging. Mozart is mostly stage right.
AMADEUS was first performed in 1979 at the Royal National Theatre, London and went on to play in the West End and on Broadway.
The production, a co-production of Redline Productions and the Sydney Opera House, is playing as part of the Sydney Opera House’s NSW Government’s Blockbuster Funding initiative. The 50th anniversary coincides with the completion of the Sydney Opera House’s Decade of Renewal which the renewal of the Concert Hall.
AMADEUS is playing the Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House until 21 January 2023. Tickets from $75 plus $8.50 booking fee.
https://www.sydneyoperahouse.com
Production photography Daniel Boud
