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SALIERI: So I went. That night changed my life. CONSTANZE: Squeak! Squeak! Squeak!
MOZART: Miaow! Miaow! Miaow! I’m going to pounce-
bounce, I’m going to scrunch-munch! I’m going to chew-
poo my little mouse-wouse! I’m going to tear her to bits
with my paws claws!
CONSTANZE: No!
MOZART: Paws claws, paws claws, paws claws! Oh!
SALIERI: Before I could rise, it had become difficult to do
so.
MOZART: I’m going to bite you in half with my fangs-
wangs! My little Stanzerl-wanzerl-banzerl! You’re
trembling! I think youre frightened of puss wuss! I think
you’re scared to death!
CONSTANZE: Shhh! Someone’ll hear you! Stop it, Wolfy!
It’s really stupid!
MOZART: Hey hey what’s Trazom?
CONSTANZE: What?
MOZART: T-r-a-z-o-m. What’s that mean?
CONSTANZE: How should I know?
MOZART: It’s Mozart spelled backwards, dim-wit! If you CONSTANZE: Oh, by all means—Herr Trazom!
ever married me, you’d be Constanze Trazom!
SALIERI: And then, the concert began. It started simply
CONSTANZE: No, I wouldn’t! enough. It would have been comic except for the
slowness, which gave it a sort of serenity. It had me
MOZART: Yes, you would. Because I’d want everything
trembling, my eyes clouded. I called up to God, “What’s
backwards once I was married!
this?”…Suddenly I was running into the cold night,
CONSTANZE: Your father’s never going to give his gasping for life. (to God) What is this pain? What is the
consent to us. need in this sound? Can it be Yours?...(to audience) I
was suddenly frightened. It seemed to me that I had
MOZART: Who cares? heard the voice of God—and it was the voice of an
CONSTANZE: You care very much. You wouldn’t do it obscene child!
without it.
MOZART: Wouldn’t i?
CONSTANZE: No you wouldn’t. You’re too scared of
him. I know what he says about me. “If you marry that
dreadful girl, you’ll end up lying on straw with beggars for
children!”
MOZART: Marry me!
CONSTANZE: Don’t be silly!
MOZART: Marry me!
CONSTANZE: Are you serious?
MOZART: Yes! Answer me this minute yes or no!
MAJORDOMO: Her Ladyship is ready to commence.
MOZART: Ah…yes…good! Come, my dear. The music
awaits!
Scene Six Scene Seven
SALIERI: I ran home and buried my fear in my work. JOSEPH: Fetes and fireworks, gentlemen! Mozart is
More pupils. More committees to help musicians. More here!
to God’s glory. At night I prayed for one thing, “Let your
ALL: Majesty!
voice enter me! Let me be your conduit! Let me!” As for
Mozart, I avoided meeting him. SALIERI: Emperor Joseph the Second of Austria. Son of
Maria Theresa. Brother of Marie Antoinette. Adorer of
V1: Six fortepiano sonatas composed in Munich!
music. Majesty, I have written a little march in Mozart’s
V2: Two in Mannheim! honor. May I play it as he comes in?
V3: A Parisian symphony! JOSEPH: Court Composer, what a delightful idea! Have
you met him?
SALIERI: They were all clever, yet they seemed to me
completely empty! SALIERI: Not yet, Majesty.
V1: A Divertimento in D. JOSEPH: Strack, bring him at once! Mon Dieu, I wish we
could have a competition! Mozart against some other
V2: A Cassazione in G.
virtuoso. Two keyboards in a contest. Wouldn’t that be
V3: A Grand Litany in E flat. fun?
SALIERI: Conventional. Boring. Nothing more. That VAN SWIETEN: Majesty, musicians are not horses to be
Serenade was obviously an exception in his work: the run against each other.
sort of accident which might visit any composer on a
JOSEPH: Ah. Well—there it is!
lucky day! Had I been simply taken by surprise that the
filthy creature could write music at all? Suddenly, I felt STRACK: Herr Mozart, Majesty.
immensely cheered! I would seek him out and welcome
JOSEPH: Ah! Splendid! Court Composer—charming.
him myself to Vienna!
MOZART: Majesty! Your Majesty’s humble slave! Let me
kiss your royal hand a hundred thousand times!
JOSEPH: Si vous plait! A little less enthusias, I beg you.
Come sir, you know everyone here surely?
MOZART: Yes, sire. Herr Director! Herr Prefect! ROSENBERG: A most unpleasant man.
VAN SWIETEN: Delighted to see you again! MOZART: But a brilliant writer. The story really is
amusing, Majesty. The whole plot is set in a…
JOSEPH: But not, our esteemed Court Composer. No
one who cares for art can afford not to know Herr Salieri. JOSEPH: Where? Where is it set?
He wrote that exquisite little March of Welcome for you.
MOZART: It’s—rather saucy, Majesty!
SALIERI: It was a trifle, Majesty.
JOSEPH: Yes, yes! Where?
JOSEPH: Nevertheless…
MOZART: It’s set in a…a pasha’s harem!
MOZART: I’m overwhelmed, Signore!
ROSENBERG: You imagine that is a suitable subject for
JOSEPH: Let it be my pleasure to introduce you! Court performance at a national theater?
Composer Salieri—Herr Mozart of Salzburg. Mozart,
MOZART: Why not? It’s very funny, there’s nothing
have you received our commission for the opera?
offensive in it! It’s full of proper German virtues.
MOZART: Indeed I have, Majesty! You will have the best,
JOSEPH: Name us a proper German virtue.
the most perfect entertainment ever offered a monarch.
I’ve already found a libretto. MOZART: Love, sire. I have yet to see that expressed in
any opera.
ROSENBERG: I didn’t hear of this!
SALIERI: I was under the impression one rarely saw
MOZART: Forgive me, I entirely omitted to tell you.
anything else expressed in opera.
ROSENBERG: Why?
MOZART: I mean manly love, Signore. Not male
MOZART: It didn’t seem important. sopranos screeching. Or stupid couples rolling their
eyes. All that absurd Italian nonsense. I mean the real
ROSENBERG: It is important to me, Herr Mozart.
thing.
MOZART: Yes, I see that.
JOSEPH: Do you know the real thing yourself, Herr
ROSENBERG: Who is it by? Mozart?
MOZART: Stephanie. MOZART: I think I do, Majesty
JOSEPH: Bravo. When will it be done? SALIERI: My pleasure.
MOZART: The First Act is finished. MOZART: Let’s see if I can remember it. May I?
JOSEPH: It can’t be more than two weeks since you SALIERI: By all means.
started!
MOZART: The rest is just the same, isn’t it?
MOZART: Composing is not hard when you have the
SALIERI: You have a remarkable memory.
right audience to please, Sire.
MOZART: It doesn’t really work, that fourth, does it?
JOSEPH: Indeed. We are going to have fetes and
Let’s try the third above...why don’t you try a variation?
fireworks! Au revoir, Monsieur Mozart. I’ll leave you
gentlemen to get better acquainted! SALIERI: I must attend on the Emperor. It had been
delightful to meet you.
VAN SWIETEN: Mozart, I shall see much more of you!
Depend on it! MOZART: Thanks for the march!
MOZART: Thank you! SALIERI: Was it so early that I began to have thoughts of
murder? At least not in life, in art it was a different
SALIERI: I, too, wish you success with your opera.
matter. I decided I would compose something to
MOZART: It’s going to be superb. I have found the most astonish the world! And I knew my theme. I would set
excellent singer for the leading part, Katherina Cavalieri! the legend of Danaius, who, for a monstrous crime, was
She’s German, but she thinks it will advance her career if chained to a rock for eternity, his head repeatedly struck
she sports an Italian name. by lightning! Wickedly, in my head I saw Mozart in that
position…In reality, the man was in no danger from me at
SALIERI: It was my idea. She is my prize pupil, a very
all…not yet.
innocent child, only twenty.
MOZART: Yes.
SALIERI: I had kept my hands off Katherina, but I could
not bear to think of anyone else’s upon her—least of all
his!
MOZART: That’s a jolly little thing you wrote for me!
Scene Eight JOSEPH: Don’t take it too hard. There are only so many
notes the ear can hear in an evening. I’m right in saying
SALIERI: The first performance of The Abduction from that, aren’t I, Court Composer?
the Seraglio. The creature contrived to wear an even
more vulgar coat than usual. The music matched the SALIERI: Well, yes, on the whole, yes, Majesty.
coat completely. For my dear Katherina Cavalieri he had JOSEPH: It’s clever. It’s German. It’s quality work.
written the showiest Aria I’d ever heard. So ridiculous Simply too many notes.
was the piece, I knew precisely what Mozart must have
demanded in return for it. Although engaged to be MOZART: There are just as many notes, Majesty, neither
married, he’d had her! The creature had had my darling more nor less, as are required.
girl. JOSEPH: Ah…well—there it is!
CONSTANZE: Oh, well done, lovey! Well done, pussy MOZART: What did you think yourself, sir?
wussy! Oh…’scuse me!
SALIERI: At its best, it is truly charming.
MOZART: Majesty, may I present my fiancée, Fraulein
Weber. MOZART: And at other times?
MOZART: I don’t understand. MOZART: Oh! Of course! Constanze, this is Herr Salieri,
the Court Composer. Fraulein Weber.
SALIERI: Delighted, cara Fraulein. V1: They didn’t wait for his consent!
CONSTANZE: How do you do, Excellency? SALIERI: Have they set up house?
SALIERI: May I ask when you marry? V2: Wipplingerstrasse.
MOZART: We have to secure my father’s consent. He’s V3: They’ve no money.
an excellent man, but in some ways a little stubborn.
SALIERI: Is that really true?
SALIERI: Excuse me, how old are you?
V1: He’s wildly extravagant.
MOZART: Twenty-six.
SALIERI: He has pupils.
SALIERI: Then your father’s consent is scarcely
V2: Only three
indispensable.
SALIERI: Why so few?
CONSTANZE: See?
V3: He’s embarrassing.
MOZART: It’s not indispensable.
V1: Makes scenes.
SALIERI: My advice to you is to marry and be happy.
V2: Makes enemies.
CONSTANZE: Ta very much.
SALIERI: Good night to you both.
MOZART: Good night, Sir. Come Stanzerl.
SALIERI: As I watched her walk away on the arm of the
creature, I felt the lightning though strike: Have her! Her
for Katherina!
V1: They’re married!
V2: Mozart and Weber
SALIERI: Really?
V3: His father will be furious!
Scene Nine MOZART: Salieri has fifty pupils. I have three How am I
to live? I’m a married man now! You don’t concern
MOZART: Seven months in this city and not one job! I yourselves with money. Did you know behind his back
know what goes on, and so do you! Germany is His Majesty is known as Kaiser Keep-It?
completely in the hands of worthless Italians like
Kapellmeister Bono! STRACK: Mozart!
MOZART: Did you see his last opera—The Stolen MOZART: Princess Elizabeth is looking for an instructor.
Bucket?! Unbearable! Pom-pom, pom-pom, pom-pom, You could secure it for me.
pom-pom! Not one interesting modulation all night. ROSENBERG: That is solely in the recommendation of
Salieri is a musical idiot. Court Composer Salieri.
V3: He’d had too much to drink. MOZART: I am better than any musician in Vienna. I’m
V1: He often has. sick of Italians!
MOZART: Why are Italians so terrified by the slightest SALIERI: Barely one month later that thought of revenge
complexity in music? No wonder the music at this court became more than a thought.
is so dreary! They just use the same old conventions
over and over again!
STRACK: Lower your voice!
MOZART: Lower your breeches…That’s just a joke! You
look like a toad…I mean, your waistcoat. And you were
goggling like a toad.
ROSENBERG: You would do best to retire tonight, for
your own sake.
Scene Ten CONSTANZE: Quick then! Before anyone sees!
CONSTANZE: I won’t. MOZART: Lost your reputation! Now you’re a loose girl!
V2: It’s the game. MOZART: A married woman does not allow her legs to
be measured in public. Couldn’t you at least have
SALIERI: Believe it or not I was in the same concealing measured your own ugly legs?
chair in the library.
CONSTANZE: What?
V3: You lost—now there’s the penalty!
MOZART: Do you know what you’ve done?! You’ve
SALIERI: A party celebrating the New Year’s Eve. I was shamed me, shamed me!
on my own—my dear spouse, Teresa, visiting her
parents in Italy. CONSTANZE: You? Shamed you?! That’s a laugh! If
there’s any shame around, it’s mine! You’ve only had
CONSTANZE: What is it? every pupil who ever came to you.
V1: I want to measure your calves. MOZART: That’s not true.
CONSTANZE: Definitely not, you cheeky bugger! CONSTANZE: Every single female pupil.
V2: Come on! MOZART: Name them!
V3: You’ve got to let him, Stanzerl! All’s fair in love and CONSTANZE: The Aurnhammer girl! The Rumbeck girl!
(idk what it says here). Katherina Cavalieri—that sly little whore! She wasn’t
CONSTANZE: You can both buzz off! even your pupil—she was Salieri’s! Which actually, my
dear, may be why he has hundreds and you have none.
V1: If you don’t let me you won’t be allowed to play again. He doesn’t drag them into bed.
CONSTANZE: Choose something else. MOZART: Oh, Stanzerl! Please don’t cry,,,I cant bear it. I
just didn’t want you to look cheap in people’s eyes. Here,
V2: I’ve chosen that! Now get up on the table.
beat me! Stanzi marini. Stanzi marini bini gini. Do SALIERI: Tonight is the time for New Year resolutions.
it…batti Irritating lovely ladies cannot surely be one of ours. May
I suggest you bring us each a sorbetto from the dining
CONSTANZE: No.
room?
MOZART: Batti, batti.
MOZART: Why don’t we all go to the table?
CONSTANZE: No!
CONSTANZE: Bring them here—it’ll be your punishment!
MOZART: Stanzerly wanzerly piggly poo!
MOZART: Stanzi!
CONSTANZE: Stop it.
SALIERI: I can keep your wife company. I’d be deeply
MOZART: Stanzy wanzy had a fit. Shit her stays and obliged. The New Year can begin coolly for all three of
made them split. us.
CONSTANZE: Stop it. MOZART: Of course. Then I’ll play you at billiards, what
do you say?
MOZART: When they took away her skirt, Stanzy wanzy
ate the dirt! SALIERI: I don’t play.
MOZART: Oooo! Do it again! I cast myself at your CONSTANZE: Wolfy would rather play at billiards than
stinking feet, Madonna! Ow! Ow! Ow! anything. He’s very good at it.
SALIERI: Ahhhhh. Good evening. MOZART: I’m the best! I may nod occasionally at
composing, but at billiards—never!
CONSTANZE: Excellency…
SALIERI: A virtuoso of the cue.
MOZART: How long have you been there?
MOZART: Exactly! I think I shall write a Grand Fantasia
SALIERI: I was asleep until a second ago. Are you two for Billiard Balls! Then I’ll play it myself in public! It’ll have
quarrelling? to be me because none of those Italian charlatans will be
MOZART: No. able to get fingers round the cue!
CONSTANZE: Yes. He’s been very irritating. CONSTANZE: He’s a love, really.
SALIERI: You are, if I may say so, an astonishing SALIERI: We can’t speak of it now.
creature.
CONSTANZE: When, then?
CONSTANZE: Me? Ta very much.
SALIERI: Come see me tomorrow. Alone.
SALIERI: Your husband does not appear to be so
CONSTANZE: I can’t do that.
striving.
SALIERI: I’m married.
CONSTANZE: We’re desperate, Sir. We’ve no money
and no prospects of any. CONSTANZE: All the same.
SALIERI: I don’t understand. He gives many public SALIERI: When does he work?
concerts.
CONSTANZE: Afternoons
CONSTANZE: They don’t pay enough. What he needs is
pupils. His father calls us spendthrifts. Don’t tell him I SALIERI: Then come at 3.
talked to you, please. CONSTANZE: I can’t possibly!
SALIERI: This is solely between us. How can I help? SALIERI: Yes or no…in his interests? (to audience) I’d
CONSTANZE: My husband needs security, sir. If he done it! Invited her!
could find regular employment everything would be all
right. Is there nothing at court?
SALIERI: Not at the moment.
CONSTANZE: Princess Elizabeth needs a tutor.
SALIERI: Really? I hadn’t heard.
CONSTANZE: One word from you and the post would be
his. Other pupils would follow at once.
SALIERI: He’s coming back.
CONSTANZE: Please, Excellency. You can’t imagine
what a difference it would make.
Scene Eleven shall rechristen her La Generosa. I’ll write a glorious
song for her under that title and she’ll sing it just for me.
SALIERI: Next afternoon I waited in a fever. Would she
come? If she did, how would I behave? Was I actually CONSTANZE: I am much out of practice sir.
going to seduce a young wife of two months standing? SALIERI: La Generosa. Don’t tell me it’s going to prove
Part of me—much of me—wanted it badly. On the stroke! inaccurate, my name for you.
She’d come!
CONSTANZE: What name do you give your wife,
CONSTANZE: Excellency! Excellency?
SALIERI: You have come. SALIERI: I call my wife Signora Salieri. If I named her
CONSTANZE: I should not have. My husband would be anything else it would be La Statua. She is a very upright
frantic if he knew. He’s a jealous man. lady.
SALIERI: You’re looking even prettier than you were last CONSTANZE: I’d like to meet her.
night, if I may say so. SALIERI: Constanze, tomorrow evening I dine with the
CONSTANZE: Ta very much. I brought you some emperor. One word from me recommending your
manuscripts by Wolfgang. When you see them, youll husband as tutor to the Princess Elizabeth and that
understand how right he is for royal appointment. Will invaluable post is his. No one contradicts me.
you look at them please, while I wait? CONSTANZE: I believe you.
SALIERI: Now? SALLIERI: Surely service of that sort deserves a little
CONSTANZE: Yes. I have to take them back with me. recompense in return?
He’ll miss them otherwise. These are all the originals. CONSTANZE: How little?
SALIERI: I think you’re the most generous girl in the SALIERI: The size of a kiss.
world.
CONSTANZE: Just one?
CONSTANZE: Generous?
SALIERI: If one seems fair to you.
SALIERI: It’s my word for you. I thought last night that
Constanze is altogether too stiff a name for that girl. I CONSTANZE: I fancy that’s fairness enough.
SALIERI: A pity…it’s somewhat a small pay, to secure a He rather likes it. Do you want me to scold you a bit and
post every musician in Vienna is hoping for. smack your botty too?
CONSTANZE: What do you mean? SALIERI: How dare you?! You silly, common girl! Let us
confine our talk to your husband. He is a brilliant
SALIERI: Is it not clear?
keyboard player, however, the Princess Elizabeth also
CONSTANZE: Not at all. requires a tutor in vocal music. I am not convinced he is
the man for that. I would like to look at the pieces you’ve
SALIERI: Another pity…a thousand pities. brought, and decide if he is mature enough. I will study
CONSTANZE: I don’t believe what you’ve just said. them overnight—and you will study my proposal. That is
the price.
SALIERI: What did I say?
CONSTANZE: I’m getting out of this!
SALIERI: Constanze..
CONSTANZE: Let me pass, please.
SALIERI: Constanze, listen to me! When I met you last
night, I envied Mozart from the depths of my soul. For
one silly second I dared imagine that you might spare me
one coin of tenderness your rich husband does not
need—and inspire me also.
CONSTANZE: Mozart was right. You’re wicked.
SALIERI: He said that?
CONSTANZE: “All Italians are performers,” he said. “Be
careful with that one.” Meaning you. He was being
comic, of course, but not that comic, actually. I mean,
you’re acting an obvious role, aren’t you? A small-town
boy, and all the time as clever as cutlets! Ah! You are
sulking? Are you? When Mozart sulks I smack his botty.
Scene Twelve Act Two
SALIERI: Fiasco! What had he done to me, this Mozart? Scene one
Before he came, did I behave like this? Toy with
adultery? Blackmail women? SALIERI: This is now the very last hour of my life. I do
not seek forgiveness. I was a good man. What use was it
She said these were his original scores. It was to me? Goodness is nothing in the furnace of art. That
puzzling—then suddenly alarming. Mozart was simply dreadful Night of the Manuscripts my life acquired a
transcribing music completely finished in his head. I was terrible and thrilling purpose. The blocking of God in one
staring through the cage of those meticulous ink strokes of His purest manifestations. I had the power. God
at—an Absolute Beauty! Now for the first time I feel my needed Mozart to let Himself into the world. Mozart was
emptiness. the battleground. Barely one hour later— Constanze was
You gave me the desire to serve You, to praise You. You back. At ten o’clock at night! ….
know how hard I’ve worked that I might hear Your Voice! CONSTANZE: My husband is at a soiree of Baron van
Now I do hear it—and it only says one name: MOZART! Swieten. A concert of Sebastian Bach. He didn’t think I
Spiteful, sniggering, conceited, Mozart—who has never would enjoy it.
worked one minute to help another. my only reward is to SALIERI: I see. I’ll ring if we require anything. Thank you.
be the sole man alive in this time who shall clearly
recognize Your Incarnation! So be it! From this time we CONSTANZE: Where do we go then?
are enemies, do you hear?! They say God is not
SALIERI: What?
mocked. I tell You I am not mocked! You are the enemy.
I swear: to my last breath I shall block You on earth. CONSTANZE: Do we do it in here? … Why not?
I fought with God through His preferred creature Mozart. (She sits, still wearing her hat, in one of the little gilded
In the waging of which, the Creature had to be destroyed. upright chairs. Deliberately she loosens the strings of her
bodice, so that one can just see the tops of her breasts,
hitches up her silk skirt above the knees, so that one can
also just see the flesh above the tops of the stocking,)
CONSTANZE: Well?... get on with it.
SALIERI: Your manuscripts are there. Please take them
and go. Don’t return! Scene Two
CONSTANZE: You rotten …. JOSEPH : Herr Sommer. A dull man, surely? What of
(Suddenly she runs at him, trying furiously to hit his face. Mozart?
He grabs her arms, shakes her violently and hurls her on SALIERI: Majesty, I cannot with a clear conscience
the floor.) recommend Mozart to teach royalty. One hears too many
SALIERI: Via! stories.
I would have liked her, just then more than ever! But my JOSEPH: They may be just gossip.
quarrel now wasn’t with Mozart--- it was through him! SALIERI: One of them, I regret, relates to a protégée of
Through him to God, who loved him so . Amadeus!...... my own. A very young singer. Not pleasant, Majesty, but
Amadeus! …. true.
(He calms himself, going to the table and selecting JOSEPH: I see… Let it be Herr Sommer, then. I daresay
something to eat) he cant do much harm. To be frank, no one can do much
The next day, Katherina Cavalieri came for her lesson, I harm musically to the Princess Elizabeth.
made the same halting speech about “coins of SALIERI: Mozart certainly did not suspect me. The
tenderness,” , Katherina found it sufficient. She --- kissed Emperor announced the appointment . And I
me and slipped easily into my bed. commiserated with the loser.
She remained there as my mistress for many years. So MOZART: It’s my own fault. My father always writes I
much for my vow of sexual virtue. The same evening I should be more obedient. Know my place! ….
went to the Palace and resigned from all my committees
to help the lot of poor musicians. So much for my vow of SALIERI: It was most serious loss as far as Mozart was
social virtue. concerned.
V1:Mozart has asked leave to write an Italian opera. MOZART: I don’t understand you! “ Ignorant Mozart.
Debasing opera with his vulgarity!” Herr Court Composer
SALIERI: Italian opera! Threat! My kingdom! thinking: “German Mozart. What can he finally know
about music?” And Mozart himself, in the middle,
VAN SWIETEN: Figaro! …. The Marriage of Figaro! That
thinking: “ I’m just a good fellow. Why do they all
disgraceful play of Beaumarchais!
disapprove of me?” Opera is important, because it’s
That’s all he can find to waste his talent on: a vulgar realer than any play! A dramatic poet would have to put
farce! Noblemen lusting after chambermaids! Their wives all those thoughts down one after another to represent
dressing up in stupid disguises… I simply cannot imagine this second of time. The composer can put them all down
why Mozart should want to sset that rubbish to music! at once--- and still make us hear each one of them. I
want to write a finale lasting half an hour! A quartet
(Mozart enters quickly from upstage, accompanied by
becoming a quintet becoming a sextet becoming a
Strack. They join Salieri and Van Swieten)
septet. On and on, all sounds multiplying and rising
MOZART: I want to do a piece about real people, Baron! together--- together making a sound entirely new…. I bet
I want to set it in a real place! A boudoir! To me is the that’s how God hears the world! Millions of sounds
ascending at once and mixing in His ears to become ROSENBERG: What?
unending music, unimaginable to us! That’s our job, we
SALIERI: Mi ha ditto che c’e’ un balletto nel terzo atto?
composers: to turn the audience into God.
ROSENBERG: Si
VAN SWIETEN: You’re a good fellow under all your
nonsense. Just try, my friend, to be more serious with STRACK: What does he say?
your gifts.
SALIERI: E dimmi---- non e’ vero che I’Imperatore ha
SALIERI: Good fortune, Mozart. probitio il balletto nelle sue opere?
MOZART: Grazie, Signore. Herr Chamberlain. Tell the ROSENBERG: Uno balletto ….. Ah!
Emperor the opera’s finished.
SALIERI: Precisamente.
STRACK: Finished?
ROSENBERG: Oh , capiso! Ma che meraviglia! Perfetto!
MOZART: Right here in my noodle. The rest’s just ( laughs in delight ) Veramente ingegnoso!
scribbling. Goodbye.
STRACK: What is it? What is he suggesting?
He’s going to be proud of me. You’ll see!
ROSENBERG: You are brilliant, Court Composer.
STRACK: That young man really is ….
SALIERI: I ? … I have said nothing.
SALIERI: Very lively!
STRACK: I must tell you that Mozart is right in some
STRACK: Intolerable! things. There is far too much Italian chittero—chattero at
this court!
SALIERI: How could I block this opera of Figaro?... within
six weeks the Creature had finished the entire score! Scene Five
ROSENBERG: Figaro is complete! The first performance
ROSENBERG: …. Mozart! A word with you , please.
will be on May the first.
Right away. I would like to see your score of Figaro.
SALIERI: So soon? MOZART: Oh, yes. Why?
ROSENBERG: There’s no way we can stop it!
ROSENDBERG: Just bring it here to me. Into my hand,
SALIERI: I have an idea. please.
Did you not know that His Majesty had expressly ROSENBERG: Write it over. That’s your forte, is it not? --
forbidden ballet in his operas? -writing at speed.
MOZART: Ballet? MOZART: Not when the music’s absolutely perfect as it
is!... I shall appeal t the Emperor! I’ll hold a rehearsal
ROSENBERG: Such as occurs in your third act.
especially for him.
MOZART: That is not a ballet, Herr Director. That is a
ROSENBERG: The Emperor does not attend rehearsals.
dance at Figaro’s wedding.
MOZART: He’ll attend this one.
ROSENBERG: Exactly. A dance.
ROSENBERG: Write your act again today---or withdraw
MOZART: The Emperor doesn’t prohibit dancing when
the opera. That’s final.
it’s part of the story. He made that law to prevent stupid
ballet like in French operas. MOZART: The Emperor will come! You’ll see!
ROSENBERG: It is not for you, to interpret the Emperor’s SALIERI: Mozart, if you wish, I will speak to the Emperor
edicts. Merely to obey them. myself. Ask him to attend a rehearsal.
MOZART: What are you doing? … What are you doing, MOZART: You wouldn’t!
Excellency?
SALIERI: I cannot promise he will come, but I can try.
ROSENBERG: Taking out what should never have been
I did nothing whatever in the matter. Yet--- in the middle
put in. Perhaps in future you will obey imperial
of the last rehearsal……
commands.
JOSEPH: Fetes and fireworks! Gentlemen, good
MOZART: There’ll be a hole right at the climax of the
afternoon!
story… Salieri! This is Salieri’s idea!
SALIERI: How did he think of that?! Nothing I had ever
done could possibly make him think of that on his own.
Had God given him the idea?!
MOZART: It’s a conspiracy. What do you expect me to
do? The first performance is two days off! Scene six
SALIERI: Entirely against his usual practice, the Emperor ROSENBERG: It’s not a question of liking, Majesty. Your
appeared! own law decrees it.
JOSEPH: I can’t wait for this, Mozart. JOSEPH: This is nonsense.
MOZART: Majesty! STRACK: Your Majesty, Count Rosenberg is very
worried that if this music is put back . One will have
SALIERI: Was this proof God had finally decided to
thereafter to endure hours of dancing in opera.
defend Mozart against me?
JOSEPH: Chamberlain. I really think we can guard
MOZART: I am so grateful to you, I cannot express---
against hours of dancing. Restore Herr Mozart’s music.
SALIERI: Hush. Say nothing.
ROSENBERG: Majesty, I must insist----
Strangely, His Majesty had arrived at precisely the
JOSEPH: You will oblige me, Rosenberg! …. I wish to
moment when the dancers would have begun, had not
hear Mozart’s music. Do you understand me?
they and their music been entirely cut. He and the rest of
us watched the dramatic action proceed in total silence— ROSENBERG: Yes, Majesty.
peasants, in the center of the stage, stood absolutely
MOZART: Oh, I thank Your Majesty!
motionless, their arms frozen in the air.
JOSEPH: Very good. A little less enthusiasm, I beg you!
JOSEPH: I don’t understand…. Is it modern?
MOZART: No, Majesty. The Herr Director had removed a Scene Seven
dance that would have occurred at this point.
SALIERI: Figaro was produced in spite of all my efforts. A
JOSEPH: Why was this done? conspicuous defeat for me. Yet I was strangely excited.
ROSENBERG: It’s your own regulation, Sire. No ballet in My march! My poor March of Welcome--- now set to
your opera. enchant the world forever!
MOZART: Majesty, It is entirely necessary to the story. ROSENBERG: Almost in your style, but more vulgar, of
course. Trembling, I heard the second act. The restored
JOSEPH: It certainly looks very odd the way it is. I can’t third act. The astounding fourth. Through my tears I saw
say I like it. the Emperor ….. yawn.
MOZART: Nor do I, Majesty.
JOSEPH: Most ingenious, Mozart. I do think we must onit SALIERI: I decided to learn everything I could of his
encores in future. It really makes things far too long. weaknesses.
Make a note, Rosenberg.
Scene Eight
ROSENBERG: Majesty.
MOZART: I’ll go to England! England loves music. When
JOSEPH: Gentlemen, good night to you. Strack, attend I was a boy: they absolutely adored me. I had more
me. kisses than you’ve had cakes!... People loved me.
MOZART: Herr Salieri . What do you think? SALIERI: Perhaps they will again. Why don’t you go to
SALIERI: I think the piece is …… London?
MOZART: I’ll tell you what it is. It’s the best opera yet MOZART: I have a wife and child and no money. I wrote
written. Only I could have done it. No one else living. to Papa to take the boy off my hands just for a few
months and he refused!. He’s bitter man, after he’d
V2: Rosenberg is furious. finished showing me off around Europe he never went
V3: He’ll never forgive Mozart. anywhere himself. Under everything he’s jealous of me!
He’ll never forgive me for being cleverer than he is. I’ll tell
V1: He’ll do anything to get back at him! you a secret. Leopold Mozart is just jealous, dried-up old
SALIERI: It wasn’t hard to get the piece canceled. I saw turd…. I actually detest him.
to it, Figaro was played only nine times! My defeat finally V123: Leopold Mozart is dead!
turned into a victory. Was He taking any notice of me at
all? SALIERI: Death is inevitable, my friend.
MOZART: Withdrawn! Absolutely no plans for its revival! MOZART: There’s no one else who understands the
wickedness around. He watched for me all my life--- and I
SALIERI: If the public does not like one’s work, one has betrayed him.
to accept the fact gracefully. And certainly they didn’t.
SALIERI: Wolfgang. Don’t accuse yourself….
V2: It’s too complicated!
So rose the Ghost Father in Don Giovanni!
V3: Too tiresome!
V1: All those morbid harmonies!
Scene Nine SALERI: Four hundred. Light payment, for light duties.
SALIERI: Could I have not stopped my war? Shown him JOSEPH: Perfect fair
some pity? Yes , my friends, if He above had shown me SALIERI: So easily done. Like many men obessed with
one drop of it! Every day I still prayed. “Make this one being thought generous, Joseph the Second was
good in my ears! Just this one!” Would He ever? Not one, quintessentially stingy.
I heard his –month after month—sweeter than the psalms
of Heaven. “Grant this to me! “ No, no, no: I do not need MOZART: It’s a damned insult.
you, Salieri! I have Mozart! Better for you to be silent!” SALIERI: Regard it as token.
HA HA HA HA HA !
MOZART: When I was young they gave me smuffboxes.
The Creature’s gleeful giggle was the laughter of God. I Now it’s tokens! For what? Pom-pom for fireworks!
had to end it. How? Reduce the man to Twang-twang for contredanzes!
destitution…..Starve out God!
SALIERI: I’d not have suggested it if I’d known you’d be
Scene Ten distressed.
MOZART: I have no money, and no prospect of any. MOZART: You suggested it?
JOSEPH: We must find him a post. There’s nothing SALIERI: I regret I was not able to do more.
available, Majesty. There’s Chamber Composer, now that
MOZART: Oh…forgive me! You’re a truly kind man- and
Gluck is dead.
I’m a monstrous fool.
SALIERI: Mozart to follow Gluck?
SALIERI: No, s’il vous plait. A little less enthusiasm, I
JOSEPH: I won’t have him say I drove him away. You beg you! I shall see you soon again?
know what a tongue he has.
MOZART: Of course!
SALIERI: Then grant him Gluck’s post, Majesty, but not
SALIERI: Why not visit me?
his salary. That would be wrong.
MOZART: I will!
JOSEPH: Gluck got two thousand florins a year. What
should Mozart get?
SALIERI: My new friend! Now, was the moment for God Scene Eleven
to crush me. You know what happened? I had just
ruined Mozart’s career at court. God rewarded me by MOZART: Congratulations, sir!
granting me my dearest wish!
SALIERI: Thank you. Clearly there was a change for the
ALL: Kapellmeister Bonno is dead! worse. I hear you are not well, my friend.
V2: You ar appointed – MOZART: It’s nothing. I do not sleep well, and I tend to
have dreams. Quite often.
V3: By royal decree –
CONSTANZE: Wolferl! Not now, dear.
V1: To fill his place!
MOZART: It’s always the same one. A looming figure
JOSEPH: First Royal and Imperial Kapellmeister to our comes to me, doing this. It has no face … What can it
court. mean?
ROSENBERG: Evviva, Salieri! SALIERI: Surely you do not believe in dreams?
STRACK: Well done, Salieri! MOZART: No, of course not!
JOSEPH: Dear Salieri. There it is! SALIERI: Surely you do not, madame?
SALIERI: I was now truly alarmed. How long would I go CONSTANZE: I never dream, sir. Things are unpleasant
unpunished? enough to me, awake. If Wolfgang had proper work, he
V2: Mozart looks appalling. might dream less, First Kapellmeister.
V3: I hear he’s dosing himself constantly with medicine. MOZART: Stanzi, please! … Excuse us, sir … We are
well enough, thank you.
SALIERI: For what?
V2: He’s growing freakish.
V1: Envy, I imagine.
V3: They’ve moved house again.
V1: It’s a real slum.
V2: I hear he’s starting to beg.
V3: They say he’s written letters to twenty brother MOZART: Not another word! I’ll manage: Things are
Masons. They’re giving him money. looking up already. I’ve had a marvelous proposal from
Schikaneder. He’s a new member of this lodge.
SALIERI: Of course! There could be no finally strarving
him with the Masons there to help! How could I stop it? SALIERI: Schikaneder? The actor?
And quickly!
MOZART: Yes. He wants me to write him something.
Scene Twelve He’s offered me half the receipts when we open.
VAN SWIETEN: The lodge was not created for you to SALIERI: Nothing in advance?
beg from. MOZART: He said he couldn’t afford anything. It’s not
MOZART: What else can I do? I am no longer much of an offer. But a popular piece about brotherly
fashionable. love could celebrate everything we believe as Masons!
VAN SWIETEN: I am not surprised! You write tasteless SALIERI: Why don’t you put the Masons into it?
comedies which give offense. I warned you, often MOZART: What an idea?
enough.
SALIERI: Our rituals are secret, Wolfgang.
VAN SWIETEN: I will send you some fugues of Bach
tomorrow. You can arrange those for my Sunday concert. MOZART: I needn’t copy them. It could adapt them.
You shall have a small fee. SALIERI: Take courage, Wolfgang. It’s a glorious idea.
MOZART: Thank you, Baron. I cannot live by arranging Say nothing until it is done.
Bach! I’ll have to do it. If he were to turn the lodge MOZART: Not a word. If they didn’t finish him off with
against me, I’d be finished. the Masons – nothing would!
SALIERI: Wolfgang, you must allow me to relieve you
also.
Scene Thirteen
MOZART: No! V1: Mozart!
MOZART: Then he vanished! I’m being silly, aren’t I? MOZART: Baron! You here!- How wonderful of you to
come!
SALIERI: Yes, I think you are.
SALIERI: I had, of course, suggested it.
MOZART: I frightened Stanzi away. Now she’ll miss the
Vaudeville-and I wrote so much of it to make her laugh. VAN SWIETEN: You have put our rituals into a vulgar
The theatre isn’t grand. No one from court will be there. show! They are plain for all to see! to laugh at! You
have betrayed the Order.
SALIERI: Do you think that matters to me? I would
travel anywhere to hear a work by you! Could that figure MOZART: No!
SALIERI: Baron, a word with you- Scene Sixteen
VAN SWIETEN: Don’t speak for him, Salieri! You are a SALIERI: For the first time I saw a look I’d never seen
betrayer. I shall never forgive you! I shall ensure that no before-not madness at all, but some deep-possessing
Freemason or person of distinction will do so in Vienna sickness!
so long as I have life! Mozart, Never speak to me.
MOZART: Tell me, my friend-what are you doing here so
Scene Fifteen late?
SALIERI: all is not lost. Of course it was! He was ruined. SALIERI: I came to see you. Surely not working at this
Hed did not even get his half receipts from the opera. hour?
Mozart become really odd, sir.
MOZART: Nothing! Just silliness…A new piece.
V1: Stays in his apartment all day.
SALIERI: It’s the Requiem-isn’t it?
V2: Burns his candle all night.
MOZART: I know. It’s stupid. That Messenger isn’t real.
V3: Twitching! All the same, there’s no point in taking chances. If he
suddenly appeared and there was nothing from him, I’d
V1 Trembling!
look foolish. It’s not finished. I’m feeling very poorly. I
ALL: Wolfgang has lost his wits! know why! I’ve been poisoned.
Scene Seventeen
CONSTANZE: Wolfi?...I’m back.
MOZART: Stanzi?
CONSTANZE: Yes my love.. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m
sorry… come with me …now
MOZART: Salieri has killed me.
CONSTANZE: Hush now, lovely. I’m back to take care
of you. I’m here now for always! Salieri… No one has
hurt you. You’ll get better soon, I promise.
V2: There’s little hope.
Scene Eighteen
Upstage behind the scrim will be a
funeral dirge and processional. As his name grows in the world, so will mine.
SALIERI: Generous Lord Fugue paid for a pauper’s “Antonio Salieri: Parton Saint of Mediocrities!”
funeral. Twenty other corpses. An unmarked lime pit.
What did I feel? Pity! Pity – at last! – for the man I helped Mediocrities everywhere- now and to come-
to destroy. I weakened God.
I absolve you all. Amen!
Upstage behind the scrim will light Constanze in white with “a (Laugh here that grows, and you willingly jump into the fire and scream as
gentle wind blowing on her” and perhaps some sort of image you do so. The fire image comes up again on the scrim. Show is over.)
to represent the shrine of Mozart.
Constanze, retired to Salzburg, birthplace of the Great For the curtain call, each side of the townspeople walk up to the
Composer, to become the pious keeper of his shrine. The orchestra pit and cross, alternating stopping and throwing a rose into
purity of his Mozart’s life is reflected absolutely in the the fiery pit. All the while, Mozart’s music is playing and a pre-
purity of his music! His music swells here. recording of Salieri’s laugh plays over the speakers through-out the
. Walking slowly to the center of the stage… curtain call…… that is until Mozart bows, and then it is silenced.
After Mozart bows, all cast joins him on stage and begins with hands
I stayed on in the City of Musicians, and slowly I came to
up to bow as well, but freezes in that gesture and gasps as Salierie
understand the nature of God’s punishment. What had I crawls out of the dying smoldering inferno with burned, charred rags
asked for I had! I was the most famous musician in on, and takes his bow with the others. All split and go to cafeteria.
Europe. But it would all be taken away from me.
Job well done. Now INVITE others to this show!!
Mozart’s music would sound everywhere.
Another Vivant tableau, with citizens
walking slowly into the auditorium splitting on two sides. This
dove tails or book marks the opening and the ending of the
show.