It was without doubt one of the best evenings of musical theatre I have been to in a long while.

Whoever came up with the idea of producing Peter Schaffer's play about the life and death of Mozart with live musical accompaniment deserves a medal.

The vastness of the Dome became the Vienna of the 1780s with all its intrigue and power games among the musical establishment which resulted in the premature death of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - a genius for all time.

From the very beginning, with the whispered gossip that Mozart had been poisoned by court composer Antonio Salieri, it was a magical evening.

Schaffer's play, now almost 35 years old, will serve for ever as Mozart's obituary-cum-requiem, whether the story be true or false.

Its stands as a perfect and powerful piece of theatre but when you add live extracts from some of Mozart's most beautiful music, the piece is taken to a new dimension and given a kind of heavenly glory.

Brighton-based director Jonathan Best brought it powerfully alive in a production which also included the City Of London Sinfonia under Richard Hickox, a choir of 20 and a fine soprano in Sarah Tynan.

From the sad and elegiac Adagio through the slow movement of Piano Concerto No 21 to the great operas to the final Masonic funeral music and the great Requiem, the play became an experience.

The audience had been taken to Vienna to spy on the musical scene and become eyewitness for the death of the greatest composer ever.