Amadeus Observations

* The costumes are stunning. I still have wig envy, but they can keep their hip bustles.

* The stage setup is amazing. I had a very hard time picturing how it was going to work until we were actually on the stage. I thought being in the middle of the orchestra was exciting, but being in the middle of the orchestra in the middle of a play is something else entirely.

* I have never seen someone give birth so gracefully, with their clothes on, and on stage, too.

* I have sat here for a good ten minutes trying to come up with a way to describe the acting to you. Mozart is Mozart, Salieri is Salieri, Constanze is Constanze... The people playing the parts have disappeared. I know this is what good acting does, but I have played in orchestras for many shows and I have never been drawn in to the characters as much as I have in Amadeus. There were times in the dress rehearsal where I almost forgot where I was - the fear of missing a musical cue was the only thing that kept me with one foot in the present.

* This is a rare production of Amadeus because of the live music. Most productions use a recording. Live music is better, if I do say so myself.....

* I love the music. Not too much of a shocker because it's MOZART (and a little bit of Salieri). The funny thing about Mozart's music is that he wrote so many great pieces of music that its easy (for me, anyway) to forget about pieces that I love. I've been listening to a lot of Mozart at home lately, which is unusual for me because I generally get so saturated with whatever we're rehearsing that I like to listen to something different at home. I think I could listen to Mozart for weeks and not get tired of it.

* This is definitely going to be a production that is talked about for many, many years.