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.
この記事は BBC Music Magazine の April 2024 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
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この記事は BBC Music Magazine の April 2024 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
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.
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\"At this moment in time we don't need more virtuosi. We need musicians to engage with the philosophy of music
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