Overture Magazine 2019-20 BSO_Overture_Jan Feb | Page 16

MOVIE WITH ORCHESTRA: AMADEUS
“ONE OF THE BEST
PERFORMANCES I
HEARD THIS YEAR.”
—The Baltimore Sun
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OV E R T U R E / BSOmusic.org
music-based stories. But without the
backing of independent producer Saul
Zaentz (One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest,
The English Patient), who was willing to
take box office risks, he never could have
created a nearly three-hour movie about
classical music set in lavish period style.
Forman chose to return to his native
Prague to shoot Amadeus because he
knew the Czech city had retained much
of the 18 th -century appearance that
bomb-damaged Vienna no longer had. A
particularly brilliant choice was the use of
Prague’s old Tyl Theater with its carefully
preserved 18 th -century décor to stage the
movie’s many opera scenes. Mozart, who
loved Prague, premiered his opera Don
Giovanni in 1787 in that very theater.
Amadeus’ visual impact was
intensified by sumptuous costumes and
powdered wigs that frequently favored a
contemporary, over-the-top edge rather
than period correctness. Significantly,
though the real Mozart did indeed spend
too much money on his silk jackets and
ruffled shirts, Tom Hulse’s Mozart sports
outrageous costumes and wild, pastel-pink
wigs more suited to a punk rocker than
a proper Viennese courtier. As film critic
Roger Ebert wrote: “The movie’s success is
partly explained, I think, by its strategy of
not portraying Mozart as a paragon whose
greatness is a burden to us all, but as a
goofy proto-hippie with a high-pitched
giggle, an over-fondness for drink and a
buxom wife who likes to chase him on all
fours.” Mozart’s braying, childish laugh
becomes the ultimate insult to Salieri’s
beliefs and sense of self worth.
Amadeus swept the 1985 Oscars,
winning eight of them, including Best
Picture, Best Actor (F. Murray Abraham
as Salieri), Best Director and Best Adapted
Screenplay. In 1998, the American Film
Institute included it in its listing of the
100 greatest films of the 20 th century.
Amadeus’ Musical Score
Virtually as successful was Amadeus’
soundtrack album featuring a generous
and extremely well-chosen selection of
Mozart’s music, including symphonies,
operas, piano concertos, chamber music
and—most powerful of all—extended
portions of the Requiem, left unfinished
at his death. The winner of the 1985
Grammy Award for Best Classical Album,
it became a staple in millions of record
collections throughout the world—and
not just those of classical-music lovers.
The musical numbers were selected
by the film’s musical advisor Sir Neville
Marriner in consultation with Forman
and Schaffer. Forman launches his film
unforgettably with the first movement of
Mozart’s ferocious Symphony No. 25 in G
Minor, composed when he was only in his
early twenties. This adds palpable terror
to the opening nocturnal scene, during
which the aged Salieri is discovered to
have attempted suicide and is rushed to a
hospital in Vienna.
Another important musical scene is
Salieri’s first experience of Mozart’s music
as he watches the impudent young man
conducting his beautiful serenade for 13
instruments, the Gran Partita in B-flat,
at his first court appearance, then hastily
peruses the score on the music stand
before Mozart insolently sweeps it away.
“This was music I’d never heard before,”
remembers Salieri. “It seemed to me the
voice of God.” Salieri’s expert commentary
enables us to examine more closely what
makes this music so extraordinary.
Forman creates entertaining staging of
many scenes—somewhat based on period
stage practices—from Mozart’s operas,
including The Abduction from the Seraglio,
The Marriage of Figaro (focus of much
controversy among Emperor Joseph II
and his courtiers), Don Giovanni and The
Magic Flute. Particularly emphasized is