Amadeus: A Play By Peter Shaffer

Amadeus: A Play by Peter Shaffer

Product Description

0riginating at the National Theatre of Great Britain, Amadeus was the recipient of both the Evening Standard Drama Award and the Theatre Critics Award. In the United States, the play won the coveted Tony Award and went on to become a critically acclaimed major motion picture winning eight Oscars, including Best Picture.

Now, this extraordinary work about the life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is available with a new preface by Peter Shaffer and a new introduction by the director of the 1998 Broadway revival, Sir Peter Hall. Amadeus is a must-have for classical music buffs, theatre lovers, and aficionados of historical fiction.

Rate Points :5.0
Binding :Paperback
Label :Harper Perennial
Manufacturer :Harper Perennial
ProductGroup :Book
Studio :Harper Perennial
Publisher :Harper Perennial
EAN :9780060935498
Price :$15.99USD
Lowest Price :$4.80USD
Customer ReviewsWell, then, there it is...
Rating Point :5 Helpful Point :0
Like a newspaper article, theatre has to convey its story with an economy of words.

In this way, great playwriting is a rare skill much like land the penny toss at the carnival and Shaffer is that rare playwriter who accomplishes his task so seemingly effortlessly.

Deftly, Shaffer tosses his Amadeus and Saliere together and in so doing plays each against their type rendering his Amadeus into the simple squeezebox which provides the background for the languid single note of Salieres mournful jealousy.

Whats so amazing is that in telling us the story of Amadeus art, Shaffer shares important insights about his own. Dont have too many or too few notes but just the right number. Dont be so flashy in being good that people concentrate on the flashiness instead of the point.

And dont become so engrossed in your art that you lose sight of the ultimate ends it was meant to service in the first place.

Whether we are each more Amadeus or more Saliere we can connect with this play.

Who will pray for the worlds mediocrities?
Rating Point :5 Helpful Point :0
When I was younger, I almost never reread anything. My hunger was so voracious that I gobbled up a book and then rapaciously moved on to the next. But as Ive aged, I read less frantically, returning again and again to a few works that especially move me. At the top of the list of such works are the plays of Peter Shaffer. And at the top of that list is his masterpiece "Amadeus."

What I find remarkable about Shaffers "Amadeus" isnt so much the title character, Mozart, as the character who becomes Mozarts nemesis, Antonio Salieri. Salieri is one of the great tragic figures in literature. Hes an individual who appears to genuinely love musical beauty, and who genuinely wants to dedicate his life to it. (In an early scene, for example, he makes a deal with God. "Signore," he begs, "let me be your flute, your mouthpiece. Let me produce absolute beauty. In return, Ill be your slave.") But Salieri is also a hopeless mediocrity. He knows good music when he hears it, but hes simply unable to create it himself. His compositions are acceptable, and sometimes even pleasing to the ear. But when compared with the music of Mozart, they reveal themselves for what they are: technically proficient, but utterly uninspired. The awareness of his own mediocrity, coupled with his absolute yearning for beauty and his life-destroying jealousy of/admiration for Mozart, is the heart of the play. (Milos Formans 1984 cinematic production of the play unfortunately rewrites the script to put Mozart rather than Salieri centerstage, thereby missing the whole point.)

When one thinks about it--and I believe that this is what makes Shaffers play so poignant and profound--Salieri is everyperson. Lets face it: most of us are mediocre. We fall somewhere in that great middle zone of "average." Well never be able to create artworks that express the yearning for beauty that even the dimmest of us occasionally feel.

As if thats not bad enough, the world, as Shaffer demonstrates in his play, is unforgiving of mediocrity when it comes to art. One can work like a demon, as Salieri does, but its genius that the world wants, genius that the world demands, and genius that the world rewards. Moreover, the creative genius is allowed anything by the admiring world--in fact, the world expects its geniuses to walk to the beat of a countercultural drummer. The mediocre artist, however, is allowed no latitude whatsoever in personal lifestyle.

The paradox of this situation, as well as the horrible burden of mediocrity felt by artists like Salieri (and the rest of us), is the tragic message of "Amadeus." When Salieri at plays end tells us, in his decrepitude and madness, that we can pray to him when we feel the sting of our own shortcomings and he will bless us, most of us ought to shiver. For, after all, we dont want our mediocrity blessed, do we? And yet the tragedy of the human condition is that, blessed or not, its what we are. And so Shaffer leaves us with this question: how do we overcome our Salieri-like resentment and frustration at not being able to create beauty long enough simply to appreciate beauty when we encounter it?

A Compelling and Frightening Drama
Rating Point :5 Helpful Point :0
Playwright Peter Shaffer is an exceptional dramatist. His characters are unforgettable, and each one is dealing with a psychological struggle. In "Amadeus," Shaffer examines seventeenth century Vienna and the life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his rival, court composer Antonio Salieri. This play shatters the view of Mozart as an innocent child prodigy, and instead paints a picture of a childish, scatologically minded, yet ultimately tormented musical genius. Trapped by the financial demands that are placed upon him, and the demands of a domineering father, Mozart strives to make his music and to be excepted.
The main focus of the play is upon Salieri, whom the audience sees as a sweetmeat loving, conniving schemer who is appalled by Mozarts new ideas and manner. However, Salieri is not one demensional. He is a sympathetic character, who wrestles with his conscience. Feeling betrayed by a god who shows favoritism, he recounts his desire to make music that will provide him with unsurpassable fame. However, his music is ordinary when compared with Mozarts genius, and Salieri is fully aware of this whereas ordinary citizens of Vienna are not. Vowing revenge, Salieri decides to lash out at Mozart: "Gods Flute," therefore providing an opportunity for a terrifying confrontation in which Mozart is driven into madness and early death. Everyone can relate to the character of Salieri because we have all felt betrayed when our own specific talents were regarded as inferior to someone elses.
Shaffer introduces us to two tortured individuals who are nevertheless sympathetic and unforgettable. Please give this play a chance.

Spiritual Vs. Material
Rating Point :5 Helpful Point :1
Peter Shaffers award-winning and highly popular play AMADEUS is in many ways a morality play but seen through the eyes of a complicated postmodern villain. The play is called AMADEUS but the chief character of the story is Antonio Salieri. Salieri is the Court Composer for Emperor Joseph II of Austria during the end of the 18th Century. He is held in esteem not only by the Emperor and Court, but by the masses as well. Then Amadeus Mozart makes his way to the Austrian Court at Salzburg and Salieri recognizes in the young man a musical genius superior to anything musical he has ever heard. He becomes enraged with bitter jealousy. Feeling that God has abandoned him and given the talent that he has trained to develop and possess his entire life, Salieri declares a war against God that he will fight on the battleground that is Amadeus Mozart.

AMADEUS is a fantastic play. Author Peter Shaffer has revised the play several times since its first performance in 1979 and this version of the show (written twenty years later in 1999) is in my opinion the best because it is the one that portrays Salieri more than just an evil man, but as a human being that the audience and readers can relate to and actually understand somewhat. A must see play that anyone who enjoys theatre should be familiar with.

Amadeus -- Play Script
Rating Point :4 Helpful Point :0
The best part of the book is the introduction, which tells of the changes made to the script over the years, based on on-going research by the author. I saw the movie and the play, then bought the script in order to compare the different renderings of this amazing story.

Similar Item

Doubt: A Parable

Equus (Penguin Plays)

This volume is part of a series of novels, plays and stories intended for use at A Level. The complete, original text is accompanied by an introduction, activities for before, during and after study, as well as notes. Teenager Alan Strang, fought ove

Speed-the-Plow

Speed-the-Plows Broadway run is the most recent triumph of the Pulitzer Prize-winning authors astonishingly productive career. "By turns hilarious and chilling....the culmination of this playwrights work to date....Riveting theater."-Frank Rich, New

Amadeus - Director's Cut (Two-Disc Special Edition)

DescriptionGripping human drama. Sumptuous period epic. Glorious celebration of the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. This marvelous winner of eight Academy Awards(R) portrays the rivalry between the genius Mozart (Tom Hulce) and the jealous court co

The Pillowman