Mozart & Salieri

A Solo Musical Evening Based on Works by Alexander Pushkin and Peter Shaffer

Burgtheater rising star Nils Strunk, together with Andrej Agranovski, an actor at the Volkstheater Wien, stages this dazzling monologue about the musical rivals Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri at the Imperial Court in Vienna.

For the esteemed court conductor Salieri, everything is going perfectly—until Mozart appears, the former child prodigy who creates masterpieces even from material that Salieri had given up on. “Le nozze di Figaro,” at least according to legend, becomes the catalyst for his jealousy, which escalates to murderous impulses. Both the Russian Alexander Pushkin, who dedicated his verse drama “Mozart and Salieri” to the contrasting composers shortly after Salieri’s death, and the Englishman Peter Shaffer, whose play “Amadeus” became world-famous through Miloš Forman’s film adaptation, take Salieri’s experience of envy as their starting point.

In the version by Nils Strunk and Andrej Agranovski, this fiery conflict is played out by a tormented man and captivates the audience not only through virtuoso acting but also through masterful piano playing. 

Introduction at 7:00 p.m.

Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe / Weiterspielen Productions
Director: Nils Strunk
Starring: Andrej Agranovski

“The way Andrej Agranovski masters the challenge of portraying two contrasting characters in dialogue while simultaneously playing the contrasting pieces on the piano is
outstanding.” – Badisches Tagblatt