Quarantine Theatre: National Theatre at Home: Amadeus

The last stream... Peter Schaffer's Amadeus. I think the film version is still the one for me, but love how this production integrates the musicians of the Southbank Sinfonia fully into the dramatic action. Classical music as a club tune has been done so many times before, but I do love this cliche - and it gives the feeling of partying, decadent Vienna.

Mozart is a foul-mouthed, vulgar, boyish character with immense talent and frustrated at how boring the Viennese Court's musical tastes are. Salieri is playing a dangerous game - bargaining with God as an equal, serving Him to get what he wants - talent and fame. Further appalled when Mozart rocks up, oozing talent, without having done anything to deserve this and gazumps Salieri from his high-status position as court composer. Unnecessarily explicit in places just to show how shocking they are and with some bizarre costuming for the women - Mickey Mouse hair bow any one? The production does well is showing Salieri standing back in uncomprehending horror as Mozart rises to fame without seemingly doing anything or deserving it, and how malicious Salieri is as he seeks to block Mozart, and get what he wants...at a cost.

Did like Lucian Msamati's transformation from his younger bling self to older version in the blink of an eye; also Mozart's DM's to show how gangling he is. Constanza Mozart has the raw deal in this one, trying to manage the household budget and is shown less sympathetically than in the film, and the bargain Salieri tries to make with her is shown in all its harshness; a MeToo influence.

The music tho...and the food!