Review: Rumor woven with music makes Amadeus a great play

Photo by Adam Brimer // Buy this photo

Actor Brian Sills, who portrays Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in “Amadeus,” rehearses at the Clarence Brown Theatre Aug. 25.

Actors rehearse a scene from 'Amadeus'

Photo by Adam Brimer

Actor Brian Sills, who portrays Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in “Amadeus,” rehearses at the Clarence Brown Theatre Aug. 25.

Accurate history and good theater have never been dependent on each other. Shakespeare certainly knew that a little bit of history could make marvelous theater, as do most politicians the reverse.

So, also, did English playwright Peter Shaffer when he latched onto the historical rumor that Antonio Salieri had vindictively poisoned Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart as the premise upon which to build the play "Amadeus." The play now commands the Clarence Brown Theatre stage at the University of Tennessee in an extraordinarily beautiful production.

Superbly directed by Cal MacLean, with substantial musical assistance from Lucas Richman and members of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, this production is a superlative kick-off to celebrating the KSO's 75th anniversary season.

With the orchestra seated at center stage and designer Ron Keller's ingenious set surrounding them, Mozart's music could not be more central.

The music is part of Shaffer's brilliant sleight of hand in creating the deception that the relationship between Mozart and Salieri is what "Amadeus" is about.

The poisoning rumor - vehemently denied by the historical Salieri and generally dismissed by historians as baseless - began to circulate soon after Mozart died.

But at the heart of "Amadeus" is the question of whether the gift of genius is deservingly bestowed by divine providence or the random happenstance of nature.

In the mind of Salieri, played with commitment by John Feltch, he had worked hard to rise above his poor beginnings to the status of Viennese court composer and had earned the admiration of Emperor Joseph II. The emperor is cleverly played as shallow and musically inept by Terry Weber.

Although a celebrated composer, Salieri recognized the Mozart's far superior skills. Salieri blamed God, or so Shaffer would have us believe, because he chose Mozart - a man Salieri thought was unworthy - rather than Salieri to recieve the divine musical gift. Thus Salieri justifies murder. The deed is unknowingly abetted by Mozart's wife, Constanza, nicely played by Amelia Mathews as a mixture of naivete, calculation and vendictiveness.

As Shaffer's Mozart, the musical prodigy with a penchant for gaudy clothes and the social skills of a buffoon, Brian Sills provides believability to Salieri's unfairness claim. Sills' projection of stunted emotional maturity and hormone-crazed behavior adds to one's growing sympathy for Salieri.

The success of MacLean's vision also leads one to believe that Salieri had cheated us of what Mozart might have written. The point is made by MacLean's and Richman's decision to pull the audience into the play by juxtaposing the musicians in contemporary concert dress with Bill Black's dazzlingly beautiful period costumes.

If the combination of great theater, great music and theological questioning is triguing, this "Amadeus" is immensely satisfying

Harold Duckett is a freelance contributor to the News Sentinel.

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