Forty years ago, we were all rocked by 'Amadeus.' So was Oscar-winner F. Murray Abraham

A little bit of "Amadeus" has stayed with F. Murray Abraham on every subsequent project.

A very specific bit. Gold-plated bronze, 13.5 inches tall.

"People are childlike when they see the Oscar," said Abraham, who will be coming to the Barrymore Film Center in Fort Lee at 7 p.m. Jan. 27 to host a 40th anniversary screening of the 1984 Best Picture winner (Jan. 27 also happens to be Mozart's birthday).

"Amadeus" won a total of eight Oscars, also including Best Director (Miloš Forman) Best Screenplay (Peter Shaffer), and — for Abraham — Best Actor for his bravura performance as the diabolical, vengeful composer Antonio Salieri.

It's too great an honor to keep to himself, he says. That's why he takes the little golden guy with him, backstage, whenever he's cast in a new production.

"He's appeared in every show I've done, and I've done a lot," he said. "Not to the audience. He's hidden. And the actors discover him."

Oscar, incognito

More, they adopt him.

The wardrobe department will make pertinent costumes for him. A tutu. Shorts and sunglasses. Once, a gopher costume. Whatever seems relevant to the play. The stage management will hide him for the rest of the actors to come across.

"That's one of the things I love about him," Abraham said. "You share it. Don't hide it. They all say the same thing: Can I touch him? It's kind of charming."

He won't be bringing Oscar to the stage at the Barrymore Center Saturday — "It's only when I perform, to share with colleagues," he said. But he will be bringing Elliott Forrest of New York's classical station WQXR 105.9 FM, to help introduce the film.

They've done this tag team, as interviewer and subject, before.

"I like him very much," Abraham said. "I'll do anything for him, actually."

Speaking of Mozart

It's just another way that "Amadeus" has persisted in his life — even as he's continued to carve out a career on Broadway ("Uncle Vanya," "The Merchant of Venice") film ("Scarface," "The Name of the Rose," "Grand Budapest Hotel") and TV ("Homeland," "Moon Knight" and "The White Lotus," which recently got him Emmy and Golden Globe nods).

Ironically, the actor who was so memorable as the fiendish Salieri, intent on destroying his rival Mozart (Tom Hulce) out of jealousy, has spent the last 40 years as a sort of ambassador for the much-maligned composer.

"I'm very defensive about it," said the actor, born Murray Abraham in Pittsburgh (the "F" is in honor of his father Fahrid). "He's done a great deal for me. So I feel I owe him a deep debt of gratitude."

For the record, Salieri did not murder Mozart.

That was a conceit hatched by Russian poet Alexander Pushkin in an 1832 play, and subsequently taken up by Peter Shaffer in the play (1979) and movie versions of "Amadeus."

"I think it's a theatrical device, but a really good one," said Forrest (he's on WQXR weekdays, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.). "I would say even more it took Salieri from relative obscurity and really put him on the map in a funny way, as a villain."

Another look

Thanks to "Amadeus," WQXR and other classical stations started playing Salieri's work. Scholars began to discuss him. Orchestras began to program his music. And — surprise! — it's not bad.

"I have on two occasions done programs where the orchestra, without identifying the pieces of music, play a piece of Salieri's music and a piece of Mozart and ask people to vote on which was which," Abraham said. "Generally, they couldn't distinguish them."

But Salieri as a mediocrity, obsessed with destroying the supremely gifted Mozart, is an irresistible dramatic idea. Abraham plays it to the hilt.

"It struck a chord," he said "People just understood what Salieri was going though, I suppose. Because how do you compete with genius? With a true, authentic towering genius? It seems unfair. Why not me?"

In the film, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ("Amadeus" means "beloved of God") is Salieri's white whale. Like Ahab, he is declaring war on God — the God who denied him talent — by striking out at his creature.

"That's one of the things I admire about Salieri," Abraham said. "He chose to fight with God. That's an extraordinary ego. If you're going to pick an enemy, you might as well go to the top."

Also like Ahab, he's persistent. "We meet Salieri in an institution," Abraham said. "Do you remember what he's doing? He's composing. After all the crap he's gone through, including attempted suicide, he still thinks that maybe God will touch him one time. I adore that. He just doesn't give up."

Down from the pedestal

It was the quirky Salieri storyline, and Hulce's portrayal of a giggling, boorish Mozart, that set "Amadeus" apart from other, more conventional biopics. That's one of the things that Forrest — and many viewers — liked about the film. Even if some others were offended.

"When I first starting announcing classical music on the radio and studying it in school, I had the feeling that a lot of these composers were literally and figuratively on pedestals," said Forrest, who lives in Nyack.

"It was a relief for me to know that they were people, that they were funny and they were bawdy, and they weren't gods or pristine in any way," he said. "They were nasty in some cases, and had some issues."

It was exactly this earthy approach that turned "Amadeus" into, not just a critic's darling, not just a box-office hit, but also an unlikely pop culture phenomenon.

Wigging out

Remember "Rock Me Amadeus"? Remember "Just a Friend," with rapper Biz Markie in a Mozart wig? Remember the "Baby Mozart" craze?

"Amadeus" hit a nerve.

How or why, Abraham doesn't venture to guess. Which is really, in the end, the point of "Amadeus." Some phenomena — like Mozart's genius — are inexplicable.

"How do you explain this? I really don't know," Abraham said. "There are a lot of movies that are very, very popular, but this one? It landed in a very different way. It even resonated with children. There were kids, even 10 years old, who were fascinated with the movie. I don't know how to explain it."

If you go...

"Amadeus," introduced by F. Murray Abraham and Elliott Forrest, 7 p.m. Jan. 27 at the the Barrymore Film Center, 153 Main Street, Fort Lee. $25; $20 for members. 201-585-0601 or Barrymorefilmcenter.org

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: 'Amadeus,' and F. Murray Abraham, pay visit to Fort Lee NJ