Amadeus (Sydney Opera House) – theatre review

This re-imagined production of Peter Schaffer’s Tony Award winning drama about the fictional rivalry between Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri is being staged as part of the 50th anniversary celebrations for the Sydney Opera House. Classical music and opera are incorporated into Schaffer’s drama. Snippets of Mozart’s famous compositions and his operas, such as The Marriage of Figaro and The Magic Flute, are played live on stage by members of The Metropolitan Orchestra, under the direction of Sarah-Grace Williams.

Schaffer’s play, first performed in 1979, takes liberties with history. It tells the story of the rivalry between the precociously talented prodigy Mozart and Salieri, the official court composer to Emperor Joseph II of Austria. The drama’s perspective is that of Salieri on his death bed as he reflects on his obsession with the talented upstart, his insanely jealous nature and how he sabotaged Mozart’s career. This makes Salieri an unreliable narrator. Schaffer’s play unfolds as a series of flashbacks, as Salieri takes us through some of the high points of their rivalry. Salieri admits that his first impressions of Mozart were unfavourable and that he cannot reconcile the latter’s boorish behaviour with his musical genius.

The play’s focus has always been on the complex character that is Salieri. It is a rich role for an actor. No wonder then that Ian McKellan won a Tony for his performance in the 1980 Broadway production that ran for more than 1,100 performances. F Murray Abrahams won an Oscar for his showing in Milos Forman’s 1984 film version. At the Opera House, British actor Michael Sheen (who played Prime Minister Tony Blair in Stephen Frears’ movie The Queen) steps into the role. He is on stage for virtually the whole production, which runs for a tad over 170 minutes and delivers a superb performance. He makes for a robust Salieri, consumed by jealousy when confronting his own musical limitations, but is less impressive when conveying his descent into madness in the play’s later stages. Rising theatre star Rahel Romahn brings a suitably impish quality and playful energy to his performance as Mozart. Toby Schmitz is fine as the foppish Emperor Joseph II and provides much of the humour. However, many of the peripheral characters remain underdeveloped and leave little impression.

The play has been directed by Craig Ilott, who fell in love with theatre when Baz Luhrmann cast him as the lead in a local Rockhampton community theatre production of Crocodile Creek. He later studied at NIDA and has established himself across a diverse range of theatrical companies, both here and overseas. The production and set design from Michael Scott-Mitchell are impressive. Anna Cordingley’s Baroque costumes are bright, especially the garishly coloured creations for the opera and musical sequences.

Amadeus is playing in the newly renovated Concert Hall within the Opera House. The NSW government and the Opera House Trust have spent millions refurbishing the Concert Hall and the acoustics are superb, allowing audiences to enjoy both Schaffer’s witty and insightful dialogue and the sublime music from the Metropolitan Orchestra.

Greg King

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• Idomeneo (Victorian Opera and Opera Australia) – opera review
• West Side Story (Opera Australia) – theatre review
• Cosi Fan Tutti Frutti (Emotionworks Cut Opera) – theatre review