Richard Kinder (Salieri) and Rosie Nicchitta (Constanza)
Richard Kinder (Salieri)
Rosie Nicchitta as Constanza and Laurence Summers as Mozart
Tony Newton (Orsini-Rosenberg), Jeremy Thompson (Van Swieten) Andrew Craze (Joseph II) and Laurence Summers (Mozart)
When Peter Shaffer's Amadeus opened at the National Theatre of Great
Britain in November 1979, it was received enthusiastically by audiences and
critics alike. One year after its premiere, London audiences began to line up
at ticket offices at six in the morning on the day of performance. Shaffer
revised the play extensively before its American debut in Washington, D.C., in
November 1980. Soon after, the play opened on Broadway, where it won five
Tonys, including a Tony for best drama of the 1980 season. The popularity of
the play ensured the success of the 1984 film version, directed by Milos
Forman, which received nominations for eleven Oscars and won eight, including
best picture, best director, and best actor. Amadeus has also gained
appreciative audiences internationally.
The play explores the rivalry between Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio
Salieri, the court composer for the Emperor of Austria in the late eighteenth
century. Shaffer became interested in the relationship between the two
composers after learning about Mozart's mysterious death. Although failing to
find evidence that Salieri murdered Mozart, Shaffer admits, in an interview
with Roland Gelatt, that ''by then the cold eyes of Salieri were staring at me.
. . . The conflict between virtuous mediocrity and feckless genius took hold of
my imagination, and it would not leave me alone." Critics have praised the
play's craftsmanship and its penetrating psychological study of the effects of
success and failure and the search for spirituality.