Amadeus Critical Essay | Critical Review by Benedict Nightingale

Critical Review by Benedict Nightingale

SOURCE: "Obscene Child," in New Statesman, Vol. 98, No. 2538, 9 November 1979, p. 735.

In this review, Nightingale censures Shaffer's depiction of Mozart in Amadeus, maintaining that the playwright's "appreciation of the composer is too vague, general and mindlessly rhapsodic. "

There was a moment in Amadeus that reminded me of the movie in which Beethoven's landlord proclaimed his presence with an ominous rat-tat-tat-TAT on the composer's door. A look of Archimedean discovery flashed across the towering genius's craggy brow, and he dashed to his piano, and then and there began to concoct the Fifth Symphony.

In Peter Shaffer's version, court tunesmith Salieri fêtes the newly-arrived Mozart with a tiny and rather tinny march, upon which the boy-wonder promptly improvises some indolent variations, ending up, believe it or not, with a hit-song from the still-unwritten Figaro. Well, perhaps it happened. The programme informs us that Mr. Shaffer was music...
(read more)