"And so, my friends, to the new six-part drama Amadeus, about the life, death and music of Wolfgang A Mozart, one of the defining geniuses of the last 1,000 years of western history. Co-creators Joe Barton and Julian Farino have retained parts of Peter Shaffer's 1979 play and the 1984 film starring Tom Hulce as Mozart and F Murray Abraham as his rival composer Antonio Salieri, reworked them into lesser forms, and surrounded them with lesser flat, airless, banal scenes."
"Shaffer's driving interests in the corrupting power of envy, the survival of religious faith under duress, the mystery of talent and what we expect to come from genius are mostly reduced to pale, petty versions of themselves. The performances well, we'll come to those. The main narrative is told as a confession by an aged Salieri (Paul Bettany) to Mozart's widow, Constanze, instead of the film and play's priest. He is clearing his conscience, not endangering his soul."
The six-part Amadeus adapts acclaimed earlier material but reworks it into lesser forms surrounded by flat, airless, banal scenes. Its exploration of envy, religious faith under duress, talent’s mystery and expectations of genius is reduced to pale, petty versions. The narrative reframes the main confession as an aged composer's conscience-clearing admission to the widow rather than a soul-endangering priestly confession, lowering the stakes. Early characterization presents Mozart as dishevelled and degrading, signalling a diminished tonal ambition and less illuminating take on his life, death and music.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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