Having been a fan of CAST since Season 1 in 2018, I was all a-twitter about the season opener, which featured heavyweights in the cast! And with that titillating theme: MUSIC.
On the way to the show, my friend and I were trying to guess which play it would be, and AMADEUS actually came to mind. But no, we decided we couldn't possibly be that lucky.
Well it appears the gods favored us! When Director Nelsito Gomez announced that indeed, it WAS Peter Shaffer's Amadeus, I couldn't contain my joy, I was pinching my friend in glee (sorry Anna!!).
Wonderful ensemble work was provided by Steven Conde, Dean Daniel Rosen, Jill Pena as Mozart's wife Constanze, Raymund Concepcion, and Mako Alonso. Incredible acting (as always), and amazing accent work! But the two brightest stars were Reb Atadero as Mozart and Jaime Del Mundo as Salieri!!!!
I loved the 1984 film, but I have to say, I enjoyed the live play so much more. First of all, IT WAS SO DIFFERENT! (A few spoilers are below, so you may want to skip this part if you have yet to see the movie or the play)
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For example, the play provided possible explanations for several Mozart arias, with husband and wife playing with the alliterations of "pa" (referencing Papageno's and Papagena's duet in THE MAGIC FLUTE) and teasing each other with loving beatings ("Batti, batti, o bel Masetto" from DON GIOVANNI).
I also found Jaime Del Mundo's Salieri much more malevolent in the play version, because he practically succeeded in securing Constanze's sexual favors in return for his patronage of Mozart. When she had succumbed and was already undressing, he changes his mind and bids her run off, thereby doubly damning and insulting her.
The degree of Salieri's deception was also much more brutal when, seeing a grieving Mozart bereft of his newly departed father, Salieri opens his arms to him and says "Lean on me." And Mozart embraces him, crying, "Papa!"
Oh, such vile duplicity!!!
AND CAN WE TALK ABOUT THE LAST CONFRONTATION?!
Mozart, ill and penniless, begs Salieri to take a look at his Requiem mass (which was NOT commissioned by Salieri, in the play, but by another plagiarizing aristocrat).
Salieri peruses the pages and looks up in equal parts wonder and terror. "It will help the ages to mourn," he says, realizing he had "no need to mourn a man who will live forever," and that the mass heralded the destruction of Salieri's own soul.
Overcome with pious fervor, Salieri confesses all before Mozart, begging for an absolution that God Himself cannot grant. And all Mozart could sing back, in the manner of broken men, was "Ah vous dirai-je, Maman."
Salieri looks on in horror as he realizes what he had wrought... by "reducing God's incarnation, he had reduced God" ... "the profoundest voice in the world reduced to a nursery tune."
That scene, and yesterday's reading, will live on in the memories of those of us who were lucky enough to witness it. And yes, it took three hours but we never noticed time's passage. We also didn't notice the ash falling on the ground! So much admiration for the CAST team and the performers for going on with the show!
CAST's offerings are proving to be highlights in Manila's rich theatre scene. They have three more staged readings in Pineapple Lab, Makati, for the next three Sundays!
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