Forget rock ‘n’﷽ roll — Amazon’s latest dramedy is taking on the w🐲orld of sex, drugs and classical music.
“Mozart in the Jungle” (all 10 episodes premiere Tuesday) is a behind- the-scenes look at the fi🃏ctional New York Symphony — and all the mind games, politics and back-stabbing that goes into creating the refined music.
“I think the misconception that I had were these were all totally square people,” star Lola Kirke tells The Post. “Ultimately they’re artists, and artists are known for having these degenerate minds … So therefore it shouldn’t be so surprising that they are having sex and doing drugs and embarrassing themselves.”
Inspired by Blair Tindall’s , “Mozart” centers on a young oboist named Hailey (Kirke, sister of “Girls” st🐽ar Jemima) who is trying to navigate the egos and eccentricities of the orchestra and its passionate new conductor Rodrigo (Gael Garcia Bernal), whose unconventional approach threatens its old guard — including the reluctantly outgoing conductor (Malcolm McDowell) and chairwoman of the board (Bernadette Peters).
“He’s dreadfully afraid thaಌt he’s sold out in coming to New York, which some might say is a graveyard for classical music and so he wants to bring the blood to it,” says Paul Weitz, who serves as executive producer along with Roman Coppola, Jason Schwartzman and John Strauss.
Rodrigo at first tries to add the🀅 young Hailey to his orchestra and pushes the musicians out of their comfort zone, taking them to play in an abandoned lot in the Bronx and inviting his volatile ꦯviolinist ex-wife to play with the group.
“He’s this kind of 𒅌esoteri🐲c, wild, unexpected character, a tortured soul, very lonely, sacrificing himself for the music,” Bernal says.
Artists are known for having degenerate minds.
- Lola Kirke
Rodrigo finds companionship in Hailey, who eventually becomes his assistant, and perhaps a potential love interest — thoughಌ both stars are mum on any on-screen romance.
“He inspires Hailey and opens her up,” Kirke say🐼s. “Of course there are some bumps in the road. Hailey is wondering what-the-hell is she doing being🌱 an assistant because what she really wants to be doing is playing.”
To act the part of playing an instrument, Kirke and the other stars trained with coaches in an imitation process, learning to mimic the movements of a musician (the res🐻t of the show’s orchestra is composed of professional musicians from The Chelsea Symphony and the new Westchester Symphony Orchestra).
There are not performances every episode — the first season takes place in the orchestra’s off-season — with the goal of getting viewers invested in the characte💎rs rather than educating them about classical music.
“I🤪t’s about the people that have devoted their lives to something and the eccentricities that pop out of that,” Schwartzman says. “You spend your entire childhood devoted to one thing, there’s a lot about your personality that’s flawed and that’s what’s interesting.”