AMADEUS. To 14 October.

London

AMADEUS
by Peter Shaffer

Wilton’s Music Hall Grace’s Alley, off Ensign Street E1 8JB To 14 October 2006
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat Sat 3pm
Runs 2hr 45min One interval

TICKETS: 0870 060 1756
www.ticketweb.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 20 September

Beautiful music, splendid music-hall, imaginative production.
A rumour, recorded in the deaf Beethoven’s visitors’ book during 1823, said old composer Antonio Salieri was claiming to have poisoned Mozart 27 years earlier. From this, Shaffer concocted a memory play, Salieri reliving his jealousy of the younger composer. The poisoning becomes a metaphor, and jealousy subsumed within the old man’s search for significance.

Salieri, honoured in Vienna as Court Composer, lives a morally scrupulous life of dutiful talent until Mozart arrives. Unease turns to hate when he sees the younger man’s manuscripts, his first drafts performance-ready. In rage at Mozart’s divine gift of instant genius, Salieri revenges himself against God by destroying His musical instrument on earth.

Shaffer also considers the emptiness of celebrity. Mozart, with his giggly social ineptness, is despised by almost everyone – tall, assured figures surround and dismiss him. Yet it’s his name now in the title; his music without which there’d be no play. Director John Doyle makes the point at the start as Mozart stands behind Salieri’s narration, conducting key phrases, letting us see who’ll have the last, immortal laugh.

Doyle’s doesn’t have, all-round, the most refined performances of any Amadeus, but his is among the most atmospheric. A set of golden Rococo mirrors reflects the elegant emptiness of the court, while blending seamlessly with the faded glamour of Wilton’s (a venue worth visiting in its own right).

And Doyle’s ensemble-style fills the stage with the busy life of Viennese government and culture, its imposing figures toting instruments, carried briskly around like official portfolios, blown or scraped to order, creating instant opera, chamber-music or symphony, heightening the endgame-feel when the composers finally meet onstage alone. And this music allows Jonathan Broadbent’s Mozart to break off directing a latest divine composition to indulge his obscene, infantile language and behaviour as the heavenly chords continue.

Matthew Kelly’s Salieri is a triumph, his calculated suave authority contrasting Broadbent’s emotionally-direct Mozart, smiling as he poisons people against his rival. Soft-spoken, licking his fingers or dabbing his mouth with a napkin as he enjoys earth’s sweetmeats, curdling in the sour defeat of old age, it’s a memorable portrayal..

Antonio Salieri: Matthew Kelly
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Jonathan Broadbent
Constanze Weber: Jess Murphy
Venticelli 1/Ensemble: Eamonn O’Dwyer
Venticelli 23/Ensemble: Sebastian Bates
Emperor/Ensemble: Sam Kenyon
Von Strack/Ensemble: Philip Battley
Orsini-Rosenberg/Ensemble: Harry Napier
Van Swieten/Ensemble: Michael Howcroft
Teresa Salieri/Ensemble: Susannah van den Berg
Ensemble: Elisa Boyd, Sioned Saunders, Michael George Moore, Benedict James, Simon Grover, Juliet Leighton-Jones, Bryan Pilkington

Director/Designer: John Doyle
Lighting: Ace McCarron
Sound: Neil Alexander
Assistant director: Graham Hubbard

2006-09-21 14:39:13