LA Phil accompanies “Amadeus”

The final presentation of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Classical Thursdays’ five-concert series was an absolutely superb experience.

We were treated to a screening of Czech film director Miloš Forman’s multi-Academy Award-winning phenomenon Amadeus (1984) featuring Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s compositions, while the Los Angeles Philharmonic performed a selection of some of the most celebrated Mozart works live to picture.

About Amadeus the film:

Amadeus is a sumptuous, psychologically charged masterpiece that turns the life of Mozart into a riveting meditation on genius, jealousy, and mediocrity. The drama balances lavish period spectacle with startlingly intimate drama, while F. Murray Abraham’s Oscar-winning Salieri gives the film its tragic emotional core.

Its sumptuous production, featuring historic location filming, elaborate costumes and hats, ornate sets, and richly staged musical sequences, gives the film the scale of a grand historical spectacle, yet its emotional power comes from the intensely personal rivalry between Mozart and Salieri.

Its achievement is especially striking because it makes classical music feel visceral and cinematic: Mozart’s compositions become part of the storytelling rather than mere decoration. The film won eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Actor, and Adapted Screenplay, and remains noteworthy for transforming a potentially stuffy historical subject into exuberant popular entertainment – funny, theatrical, devastating, and deeply human.

With an eventual cost of approximately $18 million—equivalent to roughly $58 million today—Amadeus was an ambitious and relatively expensive production for 1984. Miloš Forman pursued authenticity and scale, filming extensively in Prague and making use of historic locations, elaborate period sets, hundreds of extras, and meticulously detailed costumes. The costume work alone was substantial: more than 1,500 wigs reportedly cost $500,000, while around 100 costumes were made by hand and more than 600 were adapted from existing European costume collections.

The production also ran over both its original schedule and projected budget, rising from an anticipated $13–15 million to close to $18 million. The investment paid off spectacularly: Amadeus became both a major commercial success and an awards phenomenon.

Live to picture

The orchestra faced a challenge with this film in particular, given that for some scenes, the score abruptly stops when paired with a hard edit of picture and a sharp transition to the next scene.

Under maestro Norman Huynh’s direction, they all superbly performed in perfect sync with the projected film. Presumably our conductor was following along by using a click track. The Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestra’s passionate performance was complemented by   Pacific Chorale, conducted by Norman Huynh and with Robert Istad as Pacific Chorale’s artistic director. A large chorus of about 40 or more singers were positioned upstage; 20 or so men grouped next to twenty or so women.

The produced film score for Amadeus was performed by the Academy of Ancient Music, conducted by the famed Neville Marriner, who was also the film’s music director. Rather than commissioning a new score, Miloš Forman and Marriner built the movie’s soundtrack almost entirely from Mozart’s existing compositions, performed by period-informed musicians; the result became one of the film’s defining achievements, making Mozart’s music an integral dramatic force rather than simply background accompaniment.

For this Hollywood Bowl presentation, the operatic arias and – of course – the movie’s dialogue remained intact, expertly supported by live orchestra and choral voices.

As riveting as this movie is on its own, the whole experience proved a magnificent night of theater, music, and sheer theatrical electricity. Amadeus at the Hollywood Bowl was everything you could hope for from a memorable summer event. The setting alone was magical as ever, a warm night under the stars, the Hollywood Hills rising behind the stage, and the unmistakable sound of the LA Phil’s exquisite artistry filling the Bowl. But what made the evening truly extraordinary was the way the live performance fused the drama of Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus with Mozart’s extraordinary music.

The LA Phil just announced the record-breaking attendance for the 2026 Hollywood Bowl season’s classical programming upon the conclusion of the summer season’s classical offerings. Over 158,000 tickets were purchased across 17 distinct classical programs, eclipsing 2017’s previous summer attendance record of approximately 140,000 by 13%.

Amadeus in Concert

Artists:

Los Angeles Philharmonic

Norman Huynh, conductor

Pacific Chorale

Dr. Robert Istad, artistic director

Kibsaim Escárcega, assistant conductor

This performance is generously supported by Pasadena Showcase House for the Arts.

“AMADEUS” film licensed by THE SAUL ZAENTZ COMPANY. Amadeus LIVE is a production of Avex Classics International.