Still Not Impressed by the New Amadeus (2025)

We were suitably unimpressed when the trailer for the Sky TV Amadeus (2025) miniseries dropped, but then I was stuck in an economy seat on a 10-hour flight home from Europe and saw that all five eps of this thing were available. I’m criminally unable to sleep sitting upright on a plane, besides, it was a daytime flight westward, thus I was moderately awake and supremely bored, and I also knew this series was coming to Starz in the U.S. soon enough. So I killed some time by watching the show, since I could get a blog review out of it. Wasn’t the worst way to spend half the flight, but it didn’t totally distract me from the crappy seat and tedious flight either.

This production isn’t a biopic of the composer — it’s an adaption of the 1979 theatrical play by Peter Shaffer, which the 1984 movie was also based on. This production is clearly part of the current “no new ideas, let’s recycle existing intellectual property” mode in Hollywood, et. al, whether it’s comic book movies, classic literature, or plays-turned-movies-now-turned-TV-shows. sigh If you’ve seen the movie, there’s no big spoilers here (though it looks like Starz is dropping one episode weekly).

Five hours does give more time for, say, Constanze’s story, including the birth and death of her and Wolfgang’s first child, Raimund (the couple had six children, of which two sons survived to adulthood). Her own musicality is hinted at, given that all the Weber sisters were trained singers.

The miniseries’ length also leaves space to explore Mozart’s mental state and how a childhood spent touring as a prodigy under pressure of his father may have traumatized him. This could have been more interesting with either a stronger script or actor in the part, but instead it emphasizes how Will Sharpe is out of his depth in the role. He plays Mozart as, well, kind of one-note (even though the “too many notes” line is included here). Sharpe’s Mozart is an arrogant genius, and that’s about it. If he’s a tortured genius, he shrugs it off, doesn’t linger or reflect on that darkness and doesn’t let the audience inside. He immediately snaps back into being a self-centered, know-it-all jerk who you can’t understand why Constanze loves him or any of his friends want to be around him. He’s repellant except, supposedly, for the music he creates.

Thankfully, Paul Bettany as Salieri can and does absolutely carry the show — he drives every scene he’s in, he has the most and best dialog, and he’s easily the best actor in the whole series. Will Sharpe can’t hold a candle to Bettany, which is a pity because the show’s called “Amadeus,” not “Salieri.” The only thing I’d previously remembered Bettany in was A Knight’s Tale, which I despised, and his performance in this miniseries just might wipe that from my brain.

Overall the story is meh, other than watching Paul Bettany, and alas, the costumes by designer Lisa Duncan are equally middling. They’re OK and very much of the same vein of other recent series (like, say, The Forsytes) that aren’t trying too hard. The basic historical shapes and styles are there, but some details/accessories are missing or off, and the leading characters sometimes go astray.

The best of the lot are the men’s suits, especially those worn by Salieri — he gets gorgeous embroidery in dark tones that look very much like period examples.

Also, his wigs are spot-on, simple, and effective. In CNN Traveller, Paul Bettany noted: “Vickie Lang (Hair and Make-Up Designer) and I spoke a lot about how I saw Salieri. I wanted him to look kind of embalmed and waxy and reptilian, and I think she did an annoyingly good job on that.”

Mozart’s suits are pretty good too, a bit less elaborately trimmed (since he’s less financially secure) but also in a wider range of colors to fit his youth and general style.

I’m not so sure about Mozart’s wigs though. It’s like they wanted to reference the 1994 movie’s wacky punk-rock style but not exactly copy it, so they just went with a light frizz — which sometimes works and sometimes looks half-assed.

If Mozart had just been given more of the taller, foppish style wigs that were correct for the period, like his librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte (Ényì Okoronkwo) wears, I think that would have looked better and less like a faint copy of the movie.

Where the costumes are most lackluster is in the women’s wear, and I noticed a number of recycled dresses (though I couldn’t get pix). The Frau Weber and her daughters have a mix of good, recycled, and not great dresses, starting when Mozart rents a room in their house. Also, check out the gown on the sister on the far right — yep it’s that Scalamandre “strawberry” brocade, same as used in Dangerous Liaisons (1988), but here with a jacket.

The women’s hairstyles sometimes lack enough hairpins, and it’s inconsistently done. Constanze (Gabrielle Creevy) gets a lot of half up / half down hairstyles that bear only a slight resemblance to 18th-c. fashions.

Weirdest of all is her wedding gown, which the costume designer said on Instagram was inspired by a dress from Alexander McQueen’s final collection — OK, but why? IDK, man.

This is just straight-up Lord of the Rings fantasy, girl.

One random thing I liked was Rory Kinnear as Emperor Joseph. Instead of being a joke like in the movie, his character serves as a useful historical counterpoint, reminding Salieri (and the audience) of the political context of the music. It’s a rare intrusion of accuracy into a mishmash of somewhat pointless theatrics.

 

 

Will you be watching this Amadeus?

 

 

 

 

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