Well, on a balmy September Friday night days before my birthday I treated myself to the Cleveland Orchestra/Cleveland Orchestra Chorus’s performance of the movie Amadeus. It was beautiful and got a standing ovation, with Richard Kaufman and Lisa Wong the conductors. I could see all the strings up close from my seat in the middle of the front row. The concertmaster was a beautiful lady and I really enjoyed watching her throughout. The funny thing is that I know what they are doing, mostly, but just can’t do it. I would like to get the score to Amadeus and play those parts myself.

The story was sad but what was saddest was Salieri’s war against God. He should have been grateful just to be able to watch the greatness of Mozart up close.

It was funny at the end when he was wheeled through the mental ward saying, “Mediocrities, I absolve you.”