(orchestral music)
- I believe that for all of us,
in whatever discipline, even within families
this idea of there being one person
that we all relate to and think,
how are you doing that?
I want to do that.
I want to make the magic you make.
As a lover of a football,
you who hacks at the grass,
who hoofs around,
hacking and chopping
and then you turn around and
your teammates are gliding,
or there's one teammate
who turns it into something balletic, beautiful.
We can all relate to that.
To somebody who elevates what is ordinary,
to something magical.
And that in turn, I guess it foments a kind of a
love hate relationship with the idea of genius.
(opera singing)
- I think you're gonna shit yourself.
- Ssh!
- Yes, in a moment,
it's all going to be on the floor.
- [Adam] There's loads of letters
that Mozart wrote to his father.
He wrote a letter almost every week.
And so you got a real insight into the way that he spoke,
and the way that he felt about things.
They were smutty letters.
- They spoke about poo a lot.
- Yep.
(Karla laughs)
They spoke about faeces regularly.
He liked to interweave that into
just regular conversation.
- General chit-chat.
- General chit-chat. - Yeah.
- Yeah.
And sexual, he was extremely sexual.
- Shit all over the mattress and shout, "I did it!"
- He is somebody that realises
the way he is supposed to behave,
and instead chooses the way he wants to behave.
Musically, I find him to be radical,
and so I thought I would like to update that
and that means to me,
David Bowie, Johnny Rotten and the Sex Pistols.
(lively piano music)
The contemporary world is very visible
and very part of the story,
because he feels so contemporary.
(lively piano music)
- And it's retrospective.
You're looking back
through Salieri's eyes and what he experienced.
So I feel like everything is slightly
left to feel, slightly grotesque.
Because it's his memory and his experiences,
and you're going through it with him.
- We wanted to find an actor
that would give us a new take on Salieri.
And I think Salieri can be on the page
a stereotypical villain.
And Lucian brings more humanity to that character
than I could ever have imagined was possible.
And fundamentally I think it's really important
that we open up these stories.
And if you want to know what Salieri looked like,
you can Google him.
- We exist in a world of metaphor.
We exist in a world of dreams
and of limitless boundless imagination.
And if you're going to turn around and tell me
that the only reason that you can't buy into the story
is because of my lovely chocolatey hue,
that's your problem.
- As for the music,
it matched the coat completely.
(orchestral music)
- By having the orchestra on stage,
framed as a modern orchestra,
you have, I guess the keepers of our music today.
And they are the people that Salieri
is trying to influence.
But I guess we know as an audience member
that it's Mozart's music that we listen to
that they'll be playing 400 years down the line.
- High horns for their hunting.
(horns playing)
And drums for their wars.
(beating drums)
- [Ruth] It's brought all kinds of new challenges.
- Yes
- Usually, we're used to sitting within our sections
and you get very used to hearing
certain instruments that are near you
and how to blend with them.
So the end result that comes across to the audience
is a well balanced sort of sound.
(orchestral music)
We somehow need to make sure
that the sound that eventually
comes to the audience is still that perfect blend.
- And all the more so because it's not like
we're trying to do a dumbed down version of Mozart.
We're trying to play it as accurately,
and as faithfully as possible.
So the audience do genuinely feel like
they could be at an opera.
(mumbles)
- There was a moment when certain members of the cast
just came along and whipped away the music stands,
(chuckling)
which suddenly felt a bit--
- What are you doing?
Put it back.
- Yeah.
But over time it gives you so much more freedom.
- [Oliver] And we can become part of the action
because then it kind of frees us up
to move whilst playing as well.
- [Ruth] Yeah.
(lively trumpets)
- It's really nice to get the opportunity to
present that in a more dramatic way.
- Definitely.
- Magnify it. - So that it really hits home,
how amazing some of Mozart's music is,
and how powerful it can be.
- [Laetita] Yeah.
(operatic singing)
- To be able to produce music
or any art form so effortlessly,
you're bound to have people that are jealous of that,
or people who wish that was them,
because there's no rhyme or reason.
So I can see why that might be regarded
as a gift given from God.
(orchestral music)
- Salieri says, "My sublime privilege
is to be the sole man alive,
in this time who shall clearly recognise your incarnation."
Are you going to be happy with that?
(instrumental music)
The height of your achievement,
your entire reason for being
is that you are the one
who will herald the one.
(clapping)
That is your gift.
- I think the play was called Salieri at one point
in the first few drafts.
And you could see why it should be.
I think it's very cruelly indicative
of what Salieri experiences,
that he's not even allowed
to be the star of his own play.
(instrumental music)