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CFA production of Amadeus will tell classic tragicomedy of stage and film
By Brian Fitzgerald
Upon hearing the title Amadeus, do you think Hollywood? Tom Hulce’s giggling portrayal of Mozart and F. Murray Abraham’s Oscar-winning performance as the composer’s rival Salieri helped garner eight Academy Awards for the 1984 movie, which became an instant classic.
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| Ascend Communications founder Rob Ryan, who directs a high-tech business start-up “boot camp” at his Montana ranch, speaks to aspiring entrepreneurs in the SMG Auditorium on December 2. Photo by Kalman Zabarsky | |
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It seems, however, that not many people are aware that Amadeus was a
Tony Award–winning play before being immortalized in celluloid.
“I’m amazed at the number of people who haven’t seen
the stage version that the film was based on,” says Jim Petosa,
director the CFA school of theatre arts production, which will be performed
on the BU Theatre Mainstage from December 11 to 15. The play in some ways
resembles the screen version. After all, Peter Shaffer had adapted the
movie script from his 1979 play. But although there are some similarities
between the two, Petosa points out that “as is often the case when
plays transfer to film, it’s a very different animal.”
Like the movie, the stage version of Amadeus pits the established Austrian
court composer Antonio Salieri (1750-1825) against the crass young genius
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-91). Amadeus explores the mysteries of genius
and man’s relationship with God. Salieri, living a virtuous life,
at first believes that God is rewarding him with fame and a life of musical
excellence, “until he meets Mozart,” says Petosa. The name
Amadeus means “beloved of God,” and Salieri is soon convinced
that Mozart is God’s chosen composer. Brutally confronted with the
limitations of his own talent and believing that God has abandoned him,
he embarks on a desperate course to destroy his rival. “What causes
Salieri’s breakdown,” says Petosa, “is the question,
‘Why would God grant this conceited moron such extraordinary gifts,
except to mock me?’ So he pledges to do nothing but destroy God’s
voice on earth.”
“Spiteful, sniggering, conceited, infantile Mozart,” says
Salieri in the play, which portrays Mozart as even more childish and vulgar
than the movie does. “The story -- the thematic ideas -- are basically
the same in the play and the film,” says Petosa, who became director
of CFA’s school of theatre arts last July. “The main difference
is the nature of the storytelling. The conceit that Shaffer developed
for the screen was Salieri telling his story to a priest, a confessor,
so we get the story as a flashback. In the stage play, he is speaking
directly to his audience. He calls the audience members ‘the ghosts
of the future.’ And it becomes a much more immediate exchange between
that character and us, who watch the events of his life unfold. So, like
all pieces of good theater, it breaks the boundary between what’s
happening onstage and the people in the audience.” The result is
that there is a more personal feel to Amadeus in the theater -- the audience
gets to know Salieri more intimately than in the screen adaptation.
The notion that Salieri may have killed his rival first surfaced not long
after his death, in an 1831 play by Aleksandr Pushkin entitled Mozart
and Salieri. The tragedy was the basis for Rimsky-Korsakov’s 1897
opera of the same name. Nonetheless, historians and modern physicians
have concluded that Mozart died from a sudden attack of rheumatic fever,
which caused heart failure. “There is certainly nothing in history
that would lead us to believe that the events in the play are true,”
says Petosa. “In all honesty, there is probably no case that can
be made for Salieri having been directly involved with the murder of Mozart,
but writers often take ideas from history to spin stories that appeal
to a contemporary sensibility.”
Since 1994, Petosa has been the artistic director of the Olney Theatre
Centre outside of Washington, D.C. The Olney is a regional theater company
that incorporates two additional companies, for which he also serves as
artistic director: the National Players, a touring company, and the Potomac
Theatre Project, which presents new works focusing on political issues.
His recent OTC directing credits include The Laramie Project, She Loves
Me, and The Madwoman of Chaillot.
Petosa was nominated for a Helen Hayes Award for outstanding direction
of a play for Collected Stories and in 1996 won it for outstanding direction
of a musical for Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well …. His drama Look!
We Have Come Through! which depicts the relationship between D. H. Lawrence
and his wife, Frieda, received a nomination for the Charles MacArthur
Award for outstanding new play in 1998.
Petosa is confident that he can draw a large audience to Amadeus -- those
who loved the movie and who might be intrigued by the play. Although viewers
of the film may remember a visually stunning presentation with lavish
settings and costumes, the set at the BU Theatre is “gorgeous,”
says Petosa, but “the play doesn’t have the level of opulence
that the film had. It’s much more ephemeral and minimalistic in
its theatrical style.” But make no mistake, the stage version is
still a tour de force -- and ideal for a college production.
“The combination of the intelligence of the text, mixed with the
emotional power of the human journey, makes it a really vibrant play to
teach from,” says Petosa. “It’s a wonderful opportunity
for young actors.”
See Calendar for performance times and ticket information.
6 December 2002
Boston University
Office of University Relations