{"id":2208001,"date":"2025-12-22T00:39:04","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T00:39:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2208001"},"modified":"2025-12-22T00:39:04","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T00:39:04","slug":"christopher-stevens-louder-cruder-and-raunchier-than-the-oscar-winning-original-this-vulgar-new-adaptation-of-amadeus-feels-at-times-like-a-desecration-of-mozarts-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/christopher-stevens-louder-cruder-and-raunchier-than-the-oscar-winning-original-this-vulgar-new-adaptation-of-amadeus-feels-at-times-like-a-desecration-of-mozarts-music\/","title":{"rendered":"CHRISTOPHER STEVENS: Louder, cruder and raunchier than the Oscar-winning original, this vulgar new adaptation of Amadeus feels at times like a desecration of Mozart’s music"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n

Amadeus (Sky Atlantic)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Rating:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The formula for Amadeus, airing nightly till Christmas<\/a>, is simple: take the multiple Oscar-winning 1984 movie of the same name as a template and turn every dial up to 11. This version is louder, cruder, gorier, angrier, flashier and raunchier.<\/p>\n

But that doesn\u2019t necessarily make it better. Its most vulgar moments seem an outright desecration of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart\u2019s sublime music.<\/p>\n

Our first glimpse of the composer comes as he staggers out of a carriage and vomits in front of his landlady and her daughters.<\/p>\n

Later, we see his arch-rival Antonio Salieri (played by Paul Bettany), alone at his harpsichord, pleasuring himself.<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s the scene in which Mozart does something unmentionable with a strawberry. Put it this way: any food hygiene inspector is going to be appalled.<\/p>\n

The original movie was also criticised for its coarseness. Screenwriter Peter Shaffer, who based the film on his 1979 stage play, insisted that Mozart was notorious for his puerile sense of humour and his sexual appetite.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/div><\/div>\n

WIll Sharpe\u00a0\u00a0With his wild black hair, he looks nothing like the conventional image of the powder-pale, blue-eyed Wolfgang<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

He loved to shock Viennese aristos with scatological jokes, and his breeches were up and down like a conductor\u2019s baton.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s viewers are less easily outraged than Hapsburg courtiers, but we\u2019re also less eager to be impressed by musical genius. Will Sharpe, who plays Mozart, cannot rely on winning our admiration and sympathy simply because his music has been revered for more than two centuries.<\/p>\n

Come to that, are we even supposed to appreciate Mozart these days? Radio 3 seems more interested in broadcasting Gambian kora music and Soweto jazz.<\/p>\n

Mozart represents much of what the current fad for \u2018decolonising the curriculum\u2019 despises. He was white, male, the nepo-baby son of a successful composer, and his patron was the emperor.<\/p>\n

Perhaps this was a consideration in casting Will Sharpe, whose mother is Japanese. With his wild black hair, he looks nothing like the conventional image of the powder-pale, blue-eyed Wolfgang.<\/p>\n

But Sharpe, a writer and Bafta-winning actor, does not naturally exude a playboy recklessness. When we see him fall down the stairs with a bottle in his hand, it\u2019s obvious that he\u2019s acting drunk, not actually plastered.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"Mozart\u2019s <\/div><\/div>\n

Mozart\u2019s arch-rival Antonio Salieri (played by Paul Bettany) is the real focus of Amadeus \u2013 his envy, malice and cruelty turn the story from broad farce to tragedy<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

And he\u2019s prone to overplaying the outward signs of genius. When inspiration strikes, at the dinner table or in church, and his head fills with music, Sharpe adopts a daft grin and his eyes dance around like a child watching fireworks.<\/p>\n

When the original movie was being cast, Kenneth Branagh, Mark Hamill (aka Luke Skywalker) and even David Bowie were among those considered for the role.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Eventually, Mozart was played by Tom Hulce, best-known till then for the college-boy comedy Animal House.<\/p>\n

Hulce was convincingly manic, immature, sex-obsessed and infuriating. He was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar \u2013 and lost out to his co-star F. Murray Abraham as the murderous court composer Antonio Salieri.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s Salieri who is the real focus of Amadeus \u2013 his envy, his malice, his cruelty turn the story from broad farce to tragedy. It begins with his failed suicide attempt as an old man, before he embarks on a long confession of how he set out to ruin and destroy his brilliant rival.<\/p>\n

Bettany achieves what Abraham never intended: he makes us feel sorry for Salieri.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This second-rate composer and court flunkey is pathetic, but he\u2019s well aware of it and that makes his machinations forgivable. At first, he\u2019s in awe of Mozart\u2019s musical brilliance, and tries to overlook the spoilt brat\u2019s arrogance and rudeness.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s only when he realises that he is being personally mocked that he hatches a plan for vengeance. Even then, his eyes are full of pain and self-pity, not wickedness.<\/p>\n

Shaffer\u2019s dialogue is filled with lines that still scintillate, almost half a century on.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This version is faithful to his mischievous wit. Constanza, one of the daughters of Mozart\u2019s landlady, warns what will happen if they can\u2019t pay the rent: \u2018I will have to sell my things and prostitute my sisters. And I really like my things.\u2019<\/p>\n

In Shaffer\u2019s wonderful phrase, Salieri is \u2018the patron saint of mediocrity\u2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s his mediocrity, not Mozart\u2019s genius, that holds our attention in this Amadeus. And in the 2020s, when we\u2019re meant to be ashamed of everything our brilliant imperial ancestors created, that\u2019s very apt.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.celebrity.land.co.uk \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Amadeus (Sky Atlantic)\u00a0 Rating: The formula for Amadeus, airing nightly till Christmas, is simple: take the multiple Oscar-winning 1984 movie of the same name as a template and turn every dial up to 11. This version is louder, cruder, gorier, angrier, flashier and raunchier. But that doesn\u2019t necessarily make it better. Its most vulgar moments […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2208002,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[25884,21913],"class_list":["post-2208001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-dailymail","tag-tv"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/CHRISTOPHER-STEVENS-Louder-cruder-and-raunchier-than-the-Oscar-winning-original.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2208001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2208001"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2208001\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2208003,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2208001\/revisions\/2208003"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2208002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2208001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2208001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2208001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}