Amadeus Amadeus Amadeus is a play by Peter Shaffer, which gives a highly fictionalized account of the lives of the composers Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri. First performed in 1979, "Amadeus" was inspired by a short 1830 play by Alexander Pushkin called "Mozart and Salieri" (which was also used as the libretto for an opera of the same name by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov in 1897). In the play, significant use is made of the music of Mozart, Salieri and other composers of the period. The premieres of Mozart's operas "The Abduction from the Seraglio", "The Marriage of Figaro," "Don Giovanni", and
Davis Cunningham Prince Anatole in "War and Peace", Pelléas in "Pelléas et Mélisande", and Belmonte in "The Abduction from the Seraglio". In 1960 he portrayed Mario Cavaradossi in "Tosca" for an ABC television production. On Dec 27, 1954 he portrayed Michele in the world premiere of Gian Carlo Menotti's "The Saint of Bleecker Street" on Broadway. In 1954, Cunningham joined the roster of principal tenors at the New York City Opera, where he first appeared in the title role of "The Tales of Hoffmann" in 1954. His other roles with the company included Rodolfo in "La bohème" (1954), Prince Ramiro in "La