Word: salieri
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...challenge his critics to take him seriously. As lush and ornate as the Paris Opera in which it is set, Phantom is the composer's most elaborate, beguiling score. It is also the most frankly operatic, not only in its parodies of period works by such composers as Salieri and Meyerbeer but in the way it has been written. Like an opera, Phantom is almost entirely sung, and its characters are outfitted with sharply etched musical motifs. Except for the title song, there is no rock music in the score; instead it is a sweeping, romantic evocation of Belle Epoque...
...MCKELLEN won a Tony Award for his portrayal of Salieri in Amadeus but is best-known in his native England as one in a four-centuries-long succession of Shakespearean actors that includes Richard Burbage (the first Hamlet, Macbeth and Othello), Sir John Gielgud and Paul Scofield. The players constitute something of a royal house--or at least are knighted pretty often...
...found after his death, has given rise to several adaptations. Frayn's, which lasts 2 1/2 hours, shifts the focus from the leading lady to a man, the schoolteacher Platonov, and provides a wondrous star turn for Ian McKellen, who won a 1981 Tony Award for his portrayal of Salieri in Amadeus...
Onstage at almost all times, Tolins wonderfully captures the many sides of Salieri and provides the production with a commanding central presence. Tolins shifts easily between narrating and taking part in the action, and thus keeps the show running smoothly. Better as the young man than the old, he nevertheless sustains subtle and shrewd acting throughout...
...giggling, philandering Mozart. In delightfully gaudy tailcoats, he plays the naughty, fidgety musical genius with a great spark of liveliness. His best moments are those showing the childlike glee of Mozart the composer, along with an endearing (and indeed pathetic) obliviousness to the envy and vengeance he arouses in Salieri. And, except for one awkward entrance, Sullivan modulates Mozart's downfall with fine control...