Salzburg Boy Charms San Rafael

Three years ago, my dearly beloved and I, on a trip through Switzerland and Austria, found ourselves at the Mozart family home in Salzburg. There we were supplied with headsets that would play Mozart’s creations as we looked at the corresponding sheet music in his own hand, displayed in cases around an upstairs room. It was a sublime experience, hearing music soaring out of paper, the same felt by Salieri, Mozart’s nemesis in Amadeus, as he reads the composer’s scores and “hears” them.

Peter Shaffer’s 1979 play imagines Salieri’s consuming jealousy of Mozart’s brilliance as the ill-mannered prodigy moves into Vienna and threatens to eclipse him. In a long flashback, the aged Salieri reveals his early mission to destroy Mozart, an “obscene child” who seemed, unreasonably, to be favored by God.

Still a young man, Salieri had already established himself at the court of the Emperor Franz Josef, while Mozart, hopelessly awkward at diplomacy and protocol, even made a mess of his bow to the court. When he proposes a new opera about life in a seraglio, Mozart assures the Emperor that it would be full of “proper German virtues” and “manly love, not all that absurd Italian nonsense.” Salieri, an Italian, feels his dislike solidify. Even Mozart’s fluent Italian cannot dispel it. But later in life, Salieri admits, “fiasco” is an Italian word.

However, by then, Mozart’s work is less and less in favor. His brilliant Italian opera, The Marriage of Figaro, seems assured of success. But at its premiere performance, the Emperor yawns, and Figaro is doomed.

Five short years later, Salieri is prosperous and flourishing, while Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is sick and impoverished. Bewildered, he wonders at the course of his life that “began so well.” But even though he has crushed the upstart from Salzburg, Antonio Salieri, Court Composer, sees the injustice and foresees the outcome.

This second production of the Marin Shakespeare Company’s summer season is being directed by James Dunn in a high-energy presentation in the Amphitheatre at Dominican. Shaffer’s Amadeus is a talky script and often repetitive -- a heavy line load for the principal actors, especially William Elsman as Salieri, but he’s fully up to it. Elsman manages quick age-changes of voice and posture as his character navigates between past and present. Drew Hirshfield shows a permanently adolescent Mozart who can be both sympathetic and exasperating, a fact he acknowledges: “My tongue is stupid. My heart isn’t.” The play also requires both actors to speak fluently in other languages.

As Constanze Mozart, Elise Youssef presents a pragmatic young wife in declining circumstances. George Maguire gives a naturalistic performance as the somewhat obtuse Emperor. Alexandra Matthew portrays Katherina Cavalieri, the opportunistic music student, with Scott Coopwood as the court hanger-on, Count Orsini-Rosenberg. Jerry Hoffman and Stephen Dietz also attend at court, while Mark Robinson and Rafael Untalan attend to Salieri’s need for gossip. Celia Madeoy plays Salieri’s proper, inanimate wife.

And since this is an outdoor performance, special recognition should also go to Ellen Brooks’s lighting, Billie Cox’s sound, Joel Eis’ props and Pat Polen’s lavish costumes. (But whoever got the moon to rise right on cue should have an immediate bonus!)

Amadeus is a long play, almost three hours, and the temperature drops noticeably after the sun goes down. Playgoers are encouraged to bring both picnics and warm layers, including lap blankets.

Amadeus, directed by James Dunn, will be at the Forest Meadows Amphitheatre,
1475 Grand Avenue in San Rafael, in repertory with Winter’s Tale, through Aug. 24. To see the complete schedule of plays, go to www.marinshakespeare.com.