Peter Shaffer's Mozartian murder play Amadeus, the latest from one of the West End's most dependable hitmakers, was arguably the London theatre event of 1979. But its early off-stage shenanigans rather echoed the manipulations of a Mozart opera, with celebrated but capricious director John Dexter the abusive Count Almaviva (Marriage of Figaro), perhaps, and Shaffer the seemingly supine Countess.
Reportedly buttoned-up and nervous in Dexter's presence, bubbling with frustration away from it, all one needs to know about the relationship of playwright and director can be deliciously gleaned from Dexter's published annotations on then-National Theatre director Peter Hall's own published diary entries concerning Amadeus: '28th March 1979 Shaffer: "I would never hold a pistol to John's head. At the moment I would use a pistol to blow his head off. But I wouldn't hold it to his head."
Dexter: "TOO COWARDLY AND AFRAID OF A KICK IN THE BALLS." It's not quite what one expects from the making of an elegant, classically structured play, shot through with intrigue and moral disintegration - or perhaps it is. Dexter's demand that he should have a box office percentage even of other people's future stagings finally proved too much for Shaffer. Breaking with his tormentor, he gave the play instead to Hall, for the National Theatre's Olivier Theatre.
Despite his diarised reluctance to take it on over Dexter (Dexter: 'PILATE YOU'RE JESTING'), Hall viewed the show as one of his great achievements, not only delivering the first production starring Simon Callow, Felicity Kendal and Paul Scofield - and later casts such as Ian McKellen, Tim Curry, Mark Hamill and Jane Seymour – but a new production in 1998 at the Old Vic and on Broadway with Michael Sheen and David Suchet.
This story is from the April 2024 edition of BBC Music Magazine.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the April 2024 edition of BBC Music Magazine.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Discovering Donizetti - Thanks to a two-year lockdown project, nearly 200 previously lost Donizetti songs will now see the light of day
Thanks to a two-year lockdown project, nearly 200 previously lost Donizetti songs will now see the light of day. For most people, undertaking a lockdown project meant learning to bake sourdough bread, getting fit with Joe Wicks, or taking up a language. But Professor Roger Parker, the eminent historian of Italian opera and emeritus professor at King's College London, had something far more ambitious in mind. He set about unearthing songs by Gaetano Donizetti - many of which had been lost since the composer's lifetime - and the enterprise turned into a two-year labour of love.
Composer of the month - Bohuslav Martinů - Though the Czech absorbed many influences from his exile abroad, his colourful music was always distinctively his own
The youngest of six, Bohuslav was a sickly child, and his father or older sister often had to carry him the 193 steps up to the tower. He was shy at school, too, though showed an early talent for the violin and gave his first concert at 14. By the following year, the future composer was off to the Prague Conservatoire to take the first, if faltering, steps towards a career in music.
Symphonies Beside the Sea- Before cinema, the wireless and coach trips cast them adrift, seaside orchestras were once a major holiday attraction
Before cinema, the wireless and coach trips cast them adrift, seaside orchestras were once a major holiday attraction. It's a dimension of music-making that once was integral to many a British holiday experience, yet now has all but vanished. The tide went out, you might say, on the professional seaside (or pier, or spa) orchestra many decades ago. In their glory days, though - perhaps a quarter-century on either side of 1900-these ensembles were everywhere, from Bridlington to Eastbourne, New Brighton to Worthing, Blackpool to Bexhill-on-Sea, Cleethorpes to Brighton... the list is astonishing.
Richard Morrison- Do Classical Works About Mortality Reveal More To Us As We Get Older? Is it inevitably true that, as we journey through the decades, we are better able to interpret or empathise with a profoundly death-obsessed masterpiece such as Schubert's Winterreise?
As we get older do we respond differently to that vast canon of music dealing with mortality? Is it inevitably true that, as we journey through the decades, we are better able to interpret or empathise with a profoundly death-obsessed masterpiece such as Schubert's Winterreise? Or do human beings possess such a flexible sense of empathy that we can relate to virtually any state of mind if it is evoked convincingly enough by a composer?
Do Notes Win Votes? - There are multi-dimensional ways that music is used by political campaigners and their supporters today.
It was a little bit of history repeating when Rishi Sunak announced the UK General Election to the heckling of his political opponents blasting out D:Ream's 'Things Can Only Get Better'.
Västra Karup Sweden
The spirit of soprano Birgit Nilsson is alive and well in the town of her birth, home to a festival dedicated to her memory
Federico Colli
\"At this moment in time we don't need more virtuosi. We need musicians to engage with the philosophy of music
Harmonic Progression
What happens when classical music-style levels of ambition, invention and sheer length are brought to pop? The answer, as Meurig Bowen explains, is Prog Rock
Golden years
Young musicians may be physically fit, but with age come the advantages of wisdom and experience
Sweet Sixteen
As The Sixteen celebrates its 45th birthday, founder Harry Christophers speaks to Andrew Stewart about directing a choral powerhouse
