Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Penguin Books Ltd (1981), Paperback, 112 pages
Description
Drama. Fiction. HTML: Ambition and jealousy�??all set to music. Devout court composer Antonio Salieri plots against his rival, the dissolute but supremely talented Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. How far will Salieri go to achieve the fame that Mozart disregards? The 1981 Tony Award® winner for Best Play.
User reviews
LibraryThing member Unreachableshelf
Seeing this play on stage earlier this season is what made me realize how much I loved Peter Shaffer. The film version is far less deep and complex, and does not for a second hint that it came from the same writer as Equus. The stage version is as clearly the work of the same artist as Man of la
Plays are meant to be watched, but as we cannot have a production of Amadeus available to each of us at any time we want it, then this one must be read rather than watched in the form of a movie which omits most of the most important part, Salieri's monologues.
There is one slight fault with this edition: after reading Peter Shaffer's new preface, detailing the six versions of the play, I find myself longing for a "definitive edition," containing the current, sixth version along with appendices of earlier (stage) versions of the scenes which were most altered. This would probably be a large, expensive hardback even if the film version were omitted (considering that it would probably have to be included in its entirety to show all the revision), but a woman can dream.
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Mancha's book is clearly the work of David Wasserman, who also adapted the script of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's nest.Plays are meant to be watched, but as we cannot have a production of Amadeus available to each of us at any time we want it, then this one must be read rather than watched in the form of a movie which omits most of the most important part, Salieri's monologues.
There is one slight fault with this edition: after reading Peter Shaffer's new preface, detailing the six versions of the play, I find myself longing for a "definitive edition," containing the current, sixth version along with appendices of earlier (stage) versions of the scenes which were most altered. This would probably be a large, expensive hardback even if the film version were omitted (considering that it would probably have to be included in its entirety to show all the revision), but a woman can dream.
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LibraryThing member Joles
This is the libretto of the show. Amadeus is a wonderful representation of Mozart's life and it's told through the eyes of a sneaky Saliere.
LibraryThing member amwhitsett
The play is strikingly different from the film. Pay special attention to the stage directions for the "hissing" noise created by repeating Salieri's name, and the stark modernist set. It makes for a completely unique mood in the play not recreated in the film. Schaffer has the sheer audacity to run
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head first into situations that would scare away a weaker playwrite, and does so with charm and finesse. Show Less
LibraryThing member caseybp
I really want to see this staged, or in fact stage it. What a brilliant piece of theatre.
LibraryThing member leslie.98
Good full cast audiobook though seeing the play in the theater is still better...
LibraryThing member Stbalbach
Full-cast LA Theater Works. This is a fanciful recreation of Mozart's life that has probably done more to incorrectly distort popular perception of Mozart as an infant-man twaddling-genius who composed complete opera masterpieces in his head, and who was hounded by a sinister foe echoing Les
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Miserables. None of this is true, but it makes a good story. Mozart in this telling is memorable character, it's most powerful aspect. Indeed the last time I saw this was the early 1980s and my perception of Mozart was shaped by it, the story-line faded but not the (incorrect) impression of Mozart. Some day I will read a proper biography. Show Less
Awards
Tony Award (Winner — Play — 1981)
New York Drama Critics' Circle Award (Runners Up — Play — 1981)
Drama Desk Award (Winner — 1980-1981)
Golden Globe Award (Winner — Best Screenplay — 1984)
Outer Critics Circle Award (Winner — 1980-1981)
Language
Original publication date
1979
Physical description
112 p.
ISBN
0140481605 / 9780140481600
Local notes
This play takes the probable apocryphal legend that Mozart was poisoned by a rival composer, Antonio Salieri, a relatively moral and highly-regarded court musician and teacher who could not live with the fact that God had given him the power to appreciate the greatest music but had chosen such a horrible little sod as Wolfgang as his literal instrument.