selenak: (Default)
selenak ([personal profile] selenak) wrote 2020-07-22 05:54 am (UTC)

The Salieri/Constanze (not!) scenes play out fascinatingly differently in the director's cut and in this production, despite the dialogue being near identical. In both versions, Constanze is willing to do it for her husband to get the job, not because she's actually seduced, but play!Constanze realizes what Salieri is up to far earlier and also maintains the emotional upper hand with her contemptuous laughing at his pseudo-romantic dialogue and refusal to let him dress up this as anything but what it is/would be, his changing his mind about going through with it comes across as in response to this so he can save face, and she's furious. Because movie!Constanze is far more vulnerable, Salieri has the upper emotional hand there; it comes across as Salieri first bullying her into the agreement and then humiliating her some more by waiting till her shirt is removed, then calling his servant to kick her out. (The movie also provides an additional small but touching scene where Mozart comes home to find her crying, and she can't tell him what happened, but he comforts her by hugging her anyway.) Both versions work with the quite different takes on Salieri and Constanze as presented in the different productions.

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