Living the Fantasy in B Flat

When Gael Garcia Bernal took the role of Rodrigo, the wild-child maestro of the New York Symphony in Amazon Studios' Mozart in the Jungle, he had never led an orchestra.

Yet, by the start of the show's second season, he was asked to conduct the overture to Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro for the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

"Gael, along with all of our actors, has been training quite a bit," says executive producer Roman Coppola. "It's nice to see these actors taking their roles so seriously."

Indeed. Over the course of two seasons, many of the Mozart stars, including Lola Kirke and Saffron Burrows, have been pursuing their musical educations with fervor.

"I had played a cellist before, so it wasn't foreign to me," notes Burrows, who portrays cellist Cynthia Taylor. What she may not have realized was the amount of training required — she studies with a principal cellist from the New York Philharmonic — and that she'd have to learn snippets of new music each week of production.

Such is the passion behind this comedic take on the orchestral life, based on the memoir of oboist-turned-journalist Blair Tindall, Mozart in the Jungle: Sex, Drugs, and Classical Music.

"We've been embraced by classical musicians and by people who really know the classical music world," says Coppola, whose grandfather, Carmine Coppola, was an Oscar-winning composer. "And we've always wanted to make sure we ring true to this extraordinary world."

Bells are ringing. Coppola and his fellow executive producers (including Paul Weitz and Jason Schwartzman) have been approached by classical stars offering their services. In the first two seasons (a third has been ordered), pianists Lang Lang and Emanuel Ax and violinist Joshua Bell made guest appearances, as did L.A. Philharmonic conductor Gustavo Dudamel.

"My sense is that they're kind of delighted by the show," Coppola says.

Choosing the music for each episode has also taken on a life of its own.

"We try to tie the music to what's happening in the story," says Jackie Mulhearn, the music supervisor in the second season. For instance, when retiring conductor Thomas Pembridge (Malcolm McDowell) is struggling to compose his first concerto, the orchestra plays Franz Schubert's Symphony No. 8 in 8 Minor, better known as his Unfinished Symphony.

Sometimes, inspiration flows in the other direction. When Dermot Mulroney guest-starred as a visiting solo cellist (a la Yo-Yo Ma), he convinced the producers to let him play Edouard Lalo's Cello Concerto in D Minor. Why? Because he knew it. "Dermot is an amazing cello player," Mulhearn says. "It was really fun to have him come and play his solo."

While the show's orchestra is almost entirely comprised of real musicians — from the New Westchester Symphony Orchestra and the Chelsea Symphony — the actors' own allegros are respectable. In fact, each actor has a musical coach on set.

"If I'm called upon to play 90 seconds of Tchaikovsky, I can probably do it," Burrows says. "But I couldn't do 20 minutes. I just didn't begin young enough."

This article originally appeared in emmy magazine, Issue No. 6, 2016