Friday, February 28, 2025, 8:39PM |  50°
MENU
Advertisement
F. Murray Abraham at a restaurant in the West Village on Thursday Dec. 1, 2022. The buzzy series “The White Lotus” is one of several featuring the actor, who at 83 is finding some of the most satisfying work of his career. “I still am thrilled by acting,” he said. (Sara Messinger/The New York Times)
4
MORE

Ahead of his Pittsburgh Symphony appearance, 'White Lotus' and 'Amadeus' actor F. Murray Abraham discusses musicality in acting

NYT

Ahead of his Pittsburgh Symphony appearance, 'White Lotus' and 'Amadeus' actor F. Murray Abraham discusses musicality in acting

To HBO streamers, he’s the Bert, the out-of-touch, rascally grandfather on the comedy-drama murder mystery “White Lotus.” To Marvel’s followers, he’s the voice of the Egyptian god Khonshu in the Disney+ show “Moon Knight,” a massive, masked figure realized with CGI. To crime drama enthusiasts, he’s Omar in the 1983 film “Scarface.”

To classical music fans, he’s Salieri, Mozart’s rival composer and nemesis in the film “Amadeus,” a role that won F. Murray Abraham an Oscar in 1985 and kickstarted a lifelong interest in classical music. 

Advertisement

As the film’s narrator, Salieri is a talented but inferior composer, forced to watch idly as Mozart eclipses him. But Abraham, born in Pittsburgh’s Hill District to a family of steel and mill workers, doesn’t see Salieri as the “bad guy” — “imagine being compared to Mozart, for God’s sake!” he exclaimed in a phone conversation. 

Actor F. Murray Abraham performs with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra this weekend.
Jeremy Reynolds
Review: The Pittsburgh Symphony married music and religious tradition — it was a touch unsettling

This week, Murray, 83, returns to the Steel City to appear with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, when music director Manfred Honeck leads the orchestra in Mozart’s “Requiem,” his final — unfinished — composition. Tickets and details are available at pittsburghsymphony.org.

For these performances, Honeck has added readings to accompany the music, a variety of Biblical texts, letters from Mozart to his father and poetry. 

And who better to lend voice to these readings than Salieri himself?

Advertisement

The following conversation has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.

Thanks so much for speaking with us. I’ve always heard a musical quality in your voice — is that a conscious choice?

It’s instinctive. I find the music in the words themselves if it’s a good script, and I do “score” the breathing, actually. It becomes a musical piece for me, though I wouldn’t say it’s conscious. No, there’s more of an instinct? I don’t know what exactly a line is supposed to sound like when I first read it, but I know it when I hear it. It’s an essential element in my work.

For these concerts I’m reading the Bible — that’s a terrific, exciting thing. It’s such an important, great work of literature. To perform it rather than sit quietly in the church and listen, it’s just ... magical.

Where did your experience with music come from? 

It’s amazing what the power of films will do. People thought I really knew something about music when “Amadeus” came out! No, I never played an instrument, though I actually did have to learn to play the piano for those few things in “Amadeus.” Milos [the director] insisted we hit all the right keys, even though those pianos were phony, of course.

I studied and listened to the same Mozart pieces of music over and over again. I’m what they called a “serious” actor, and I like to be extremely thorough. My relationship with orchestras came out of that film.

And how did Mozart’s music strike you? 

It hit me that no matter how many times I listened to the same music, it was still good. That’s an amazing thing, it’s like a play that’s lasted more than 200 or 300 years. It lives, and it lasts because it still communicates. That’s what I discovered.

Is that what led you to working with orchestras?

That, and it’s such a thrill to be in the middle of an orchestra. There’s nothing like it. I’ve recited with quite a few really great conductors. I always ask the maestro if I can sit in the middle of an orchestra and just listen. Really, there’s nothing else like it.

Any memorable first encounters with composers or conductors?

Well, even before “Amadeus,” when I went to Los Angeles to seek my fortune, I worked backstage at UCLA’s concert hall, setting up chairs. And I remember seeing Stravinsky! It was an amazing thing for me, even though I may not quite have appreciated it at the time.

Igor was pretty frail, he would hold onto the rail of the podium during rehearsals. At concert time, though, he’d take a jolt out of a flask — I wasn’t privileged enough to know what was in it — and pop upright and head out onstage. What a force, he was.

You’ll be teaching a masterclass at Carnegie Mellon University while you’re here, correct?

Yes indeed. I teach from time to time. People tell me it’s very generous, but in fact it’s selfish. If you don’t watch out, you get really full of yourself. When you teach a class, these kids are not afraid to speak up. It helps keep perspective.

This generation has so much electronic stuff at their fingertips. There were no home cameras when I was starting out, they were too expensive. I developed my film technique by rewatching my commercials and soap opera appearances... now you can do that with your telephone. That’s what these people are doing, it’s all testing and looking at themselves and grooming. They don’t have to do any vocal work, really. They don’t have to worry about any more than what they will look like... it has become a small idea of acting. 

How so?

It’s become all about a sort of naturalism, or realism. It has nothing to do with the imagination or the size of an emotion. The theatre insists on that size and large-scale scope — there, you can disagree with God! You can’t do that on camera without looking completely ridiculous. 

And that’s infected the writing profession as well. Everyone writes with the screen in mind now. The greatness of literature overall has deteriorated, I think. There’s a flatness and shallowness about work today that’s disappointing. Today, the art world is just disgusting; it’s ridiculous! I don’t want to see people carving up sharks or throwing their shoes at the wall, that isn’t art, to me.

You’ve said you quite liked the writing in “White Lotus,” though.

Ah yes, that was fun, man. They invited me, and it wasn’t long before I said “absolutely, yes.” I don’t know if it will become a classic, but it’s very good writing, good or better than many of the films I’ve seen lately. 

Then again, people tell me now they like me in “White Lotus” but that I was better in “Amadeus.” The actor’s life is a gypsy life. I’m having a good time, what can I say.

Jeremy Reynolds: jreynolds@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1634; Twitter @Reynolds_PG. His work at the Post-Gazette is supported in part by a grant from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Getty Foundation and Rubin Institute.

First Published: March 14, 2023, 10:00 a.m.

RELATED
SHOW COMMENTS (1)  
Join the Conversation
Commenting policy | How to Report Abuse
If you would like your comment to be considered for a published letter to the editor, please send it to letters@post-gazette.com. Letters must be under 250 words and may be edited for length and clarity.
Partners
Advertisement
President Donald Trump, right, meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office at the White House, Friday, Feb. 28, 2025, in Washington
1
news
Zelenskyy leaves White House without signing minerals deal after Oval Office blowup with Trump
Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts, center, and teammates run the 'Tush Push' play during an playoff game against the Washington Commanders, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025, in Philadelphia.
2
sports
Ray Fittipaldo: The Packers are right. The NFL should ban the 'Tush Push'
The Downtown skyline with the Fort Pitt Bridge on Thursday, May 30, 2024.
3
opinion
Brandon McGinley: Is Pittsburgh doomed?
Ohio State quarterback Will Howard passes against Notre Dame during first half of the College Football Playoff national championship game Monday, Jan. 20, 2025, in Atlanta.
4
sports
Steelers NFL draft big board: Best fits at quarterback
Co-owners Mary Mancini Hartner and her son, Nick, stand  in front of the original mixer at Mancini’s Bakery in Stowe.
5
life
Iconic Eats: Stowe-based Mancini’s Bakery has been feeding the area since 1926
F. Murray Abraham at a restaurant in the West Village on Thursday Dec. 1, 2022. The buzzy series “The White Lotus” is one of several featuring the actor, who at 83 is finding some of the most satisfying work of his career. “I still am thrilled by acting,” he said. (Sara Messinger/The New York Times)  (NYT)
murraysymphony0203 credit: Orion Pictures F. Murray Abraham, left, and Jonathan Moore in the 1984 film “Amadeus.”
F. Murray Abraham plays family patriarch Bert Di Grasso in HBO's "The White Lotus" Season 2. MUST CREDIT: Fabio Lovino/HBO  (Fabio Lovino)
F. Murray Abraham Original Filename: Abraham.jpg PUBLISHED CAPTION: F. Murray Abraham Will be narrator with Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra next weekend. Original Filename: 2doabraham.jpg
NYT
Advertisement
LATEST ae
Advertisement
TOP
Email a Story