Based on oboist’s Blair Tindall’s memoir and backstage exposé of life in the “allegro” lane, Mozart in the Jungle is Amazon Studio’s entertainingly symphonic soap about classical musicians behaving badly. Adapting the book to the streaming series was the brainchild of two scions of the Coppola clan: Roman Coppola and Jason Schwartzman who together with Paul Weitz and Alex Timbers assembled a cast that includes Malcolm McDowell, Bernadette Peters, Lola Kirke, Saffron Burrows and Gael García Bernal in the role of upstart composer and New York Symphony wunderkind Rodrigo De Souza – a character that can’t help bringing to mind the inspired exuberance of (actual) Los Angeles Symphony conductor Gustavo Dudamel. As we wait for the second season, we spoke to cousins Schwartzman and Coppola and to García Bernal.

Luca Celada