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Note: No longer in repertoire!
Director: Erik Söderblom
Set design: Kaisa Rasila
Costumes: Sari Salmela
Lighting: Jan-Erik Pihlström
Sound: Eradj Nazimov
Cast: Sampo Sarkola (Mozart), Pekka Strang (Salieri),
Lilga Kovanko, Rabbe Smedlund, Joachim Wigelius, Nina Kaipainen,
Patrick Henriksen, Emil Holmström, Joonas Ahonen, Kaisa Ranta,
Ilona Jokinen, Carl Öhman (Emperor Joseph II)
MOZART IN SWEDISH Peter Schaffer wrote the play Amadeus in the 1980s, and a few years later came Milos Forman’s award-winning film. Erik Söderblom’s adaptation of the classic drama is made very music-rich – there is a skilled concert pianist and a soprano with a great voice on stage, points for them. Pekka Strang shines in the lead role, as the shivering Salieri, Sampo Sarkola as Mozart and Carl Öhman is the emperor in his place. Special thanks are due to the visual appearance of the performance, including its costumes and lights. There is a treat for the eyes and ears. Even a Finnish speaker keeps up with the rhythm very well.
Read moreMEDIOCRITY AND THE MASTER “Keep Your friends close, but Your enemies even closer”. In this saying, the plot balances in Peter Shaffer’s play Amadeus, which is now being shown at Lilla Teatern. In the library there is a red velvet armchair. In it, Antonio Salieri has sat down to devote himself to his only vice, gluttony in biscuits, macaroons, sweets and marzipan. Otherwise, he is a virtuous man. The disheveled, hysterically laughing Constanze storms into the room, closely followed by a hyperactive Mozart in a neat, red outfit. The couple does not see Salieri in the armchair and he involuntarily and embarrassingly follows the vulgar, at the same time childish erotic game that takes place on the library floor. Mozart is an adult child who has never left the anal stage. For Salieri, who even before the meeting felt threatened by the new messiah of the concert halls, this will be the straw that almost breaks the camel’s back. “God, why do you give your voice to him, but not to me?” This is Mozart’s and Salieri’s first meeting, and gradually a long, rather complicated story of a mediocrity and a prodigy, and of envy, is unfolded. Although the story takes place in Vienna at the end of the 1700s, it can easily be linked to today’s competitive career society. Both Salieri and Mozart want to be the best, but one has to fight hard and sacrifice a lot to reach even half as far as the other. The other doesn’t have to struggle at all, the music comes naturally to him. Salieri’s delicate problem lies in the fact that he honestly adores Mozart’s musical genius (he is also the only one who fully understands music), but at the same time wants to do everything to counteract his success. Through his social position, he also succeeds in his insidious intent, but quickly realizes that the power he has can neither make Mozart a worse composer nor himself a better composer. Of the two, it is not Salieri who will be remembered by future generations.
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