Warning: spoilers for Amadeus episode 5 ahead.
If you’re a fan of the original 1984 movie or Peter Shaffer’s play Amadeus, you might be wondering why Sky TV feels the need to adapt the fictional rivalry between composers Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri again.
Luckily for you, episode 5 answers that neatly by completely changing the ending we know from the first two versions. Don’t get me wrong – we still experience the Mozart’s (Will Sharpe) heartbreaking death and Salieri’s (Paul Bettany) realization that he’s been acting dreadfully out of pure jealousy.
But now there’s more to the story. Many years later, Mozart’s wife Constanze (Gabrielle Creevy) is visited by Shaffer to discuss the chance to retell the heated rivalry. After their exchange, Bettany is seen sitting alone on a stage as himself, reciting the last few lines of Shaffer’s play.
Not only does this add an entirely new dimension to the infamous story, but the combination of Shaffer and Mozart’s death is a massive challenge for our leading trio to tackle. They pulled it off, but not without being scared to death first.
Mozart’s death scene in Amadeus episode 5 almost went completely wrong
“It was a lot actually,” Bettany tells me about shooting the final scenes. “We were shooting it right at the end, and we knew that the whole thing wasn’t going to work unless we got this right. And it was quite a complicated thing to get right, and I went into it with no plan of how to help it succeed.
“But what happened is that by that point, I think we all really learned to trust each other, and I and And I felt safe with them as actors. I think it worked out, though we were frightened.”
Sharpe continues, “It was scary. I remember there was one scene where Constanze comes and discovers Mozart’s dead body. So obviously I’m trying to hold my breath because I’m dead. And the better you were doing it, the harder it became.
“I feel like, on the first take… it wasn’t crap, but it was quite quick. Then on the third take, I remember, like [Gabrielle] absolutely crushing it, and found this like wave of grief that came, and I could feel the tears burning through the sleeve. But I was also like, ‘this is going really well!'”
If you’re an OG Amadeus fan that is hesitant about watching it afresh… wait for this and prepare to have your mind changed.
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