Scene One V2: All day and all night.

V3: What sins does he shout?

V1: What horrors have you heard?
WHISPERS: Salieri!
V2: Tell us at once! What does he cry?
V1: The whole city is talking.
SALIERI: MOZART!!!
V2: You hear it all over.
V3: Mozart!
V3: But why now?
SALIERI: Perdonami, Mozart…Il tuo assassin ti chiede
V1: After so long? perdono!
V2: Thirty-two years! V1: Pardon, Mozart!
WHISPERS: SALIERI! V2: Pardon your assassin!
V3: He shouts it out all day! V1,2,3: God preserve us!
V1: He cries it out all night! V1: There was talk once before
V2: Stays in his apartments, never goes out. V2: When Mozart was dying
V3: Antonio Salieri V3: He claimed he’d been poisoned!
V1: The famous musician V1: He accused Salieri!
V2: Who started the tale? V2: No one believed it.
V3: The old man’s valet! V3: They knew what he died of.
V1: The old man’s cook! V1: What if Mozart really was murdered?
V2: What a scandal! V2: By our First Kapellmeister, Antonio Salieri!
V3: (to valet) What does he say, your master? V3: Why on earth would he do it?!
V1: (to cook) What does he say, the First Kapellmeister? V1: Why confess now?
V2: After thirty two years! Scene Two
WHISPERS: Salieri! SALIERI: (to audience) Vi saluto! Antonio Salieri. I can
SALIERI: Mozart! Perdonami! Il tuo assasino ti chiede almost see you. Ghosts of the Future, be visible. I beg
perdono! you. Come to this dusty old room—this November,
eighteen hundred and twenty three. Be my confessors!
V3: What do you think? Can you hear them? Vienna, City of Slander. Everyone
V1: What do you think? tells tales here: even my servants. I keep only two now.
One keeps me tidy, the other keeps me full. (to servants)
V2: Did he do it after all? Leave me! Tonight I do not go to bed at all! (to audience)
WHISPERS: SALIERI! This is the last hour of my life. My last audience. I can
see you! Do not judge me too harshly. My parents were
provincial subjects of the Austrian Empire. A merchant
and his wife, forever preserved in mediocrity. I wanted
fame in one special way. Music! A note of music is
either right or wrong absolutely! Not even time can alter
that: music is God’s art. My one desire was to join all the
composers who had celebrated His glory through the
long Italian past. I knelt before God and prayed with all
my soul. “Signore, let me be a composer! Grant me
sufficient fame to enjoy it. In return, I will honour You
with music all the days of my life! Amen! I am Your
servant for life! The very next day a family friend
suddenly took me to Vienna and paid for me to study
music! Shortly afterwards I met the Emperor, who
favored me. My bargain had been accepted! The same
year a young prodigy was touring Europe, aged ten
years. Wolfgang Amaduen Mozart. And now, ladies and
gentlemen! I present to you—for one performance
only—my last composition, entitled The Death of Mozart;
or, Did I Do It?...On this, the last night of my life!
 Scene Three SALIERI: I’d known him for years. Tales of his prowess
were told all over Europe.
SALIERI: Vienna 1781, the Enlightenment: that clear time
before the guillotine fell in France and cut all of our lives V1: They say he wrote his first symphony at five!
in half. I am thirty-one, a prolific composer to the V2: I hear his first concerto at four!
Habsburg Court. I own a respectable house and a
respectable wife—Teresa. I also had a prize pupil, V3: A full opera at fourteen!
Katherina Cavalieri. She was later to become the best SALIERI: How old is he now?
singer of her age, but at that time she was a student. I
was very much in love with Katherina, or in lust, but V1: twenty five
because of my vow to God I never laid a finger upon the SALIERI: How long is he remaining?
girl. My chief goal was the post of First Royal
Kapellmeister, then held by Giuseppe Bonno, seventy V2: He’s here to stay.
years old, and apparently immortal.
V1: Sir!
V2: Sir!
V3: Sir!
SALIERI: I was the most successful young musician in
the city of musicians, suddenly, without warning…
V1,2,3: Mozart has come!
SALIERI: These are my venticelli. My “Little Winds”. The
secret of successful living in a large city is to always
know what is being done behind your back.
V1: He’s left Salzburg
V2: Means to give concerts
V3: Asking for subscribers
 Scene Four
STRACK: (to ROSENBERG) You are required to
commission a comic opera in German from Herr Mozart.
SALIERI: Johann von Strack. Royal Chamberlain.
ROSENBERG: in German? Italian is the only possible
language for opera.
SALIERI: Count Orsini-Rosenberg. Director of the
Opera. Benevolent to all things Italian—especially me.
STRACK: The idea of a national opera is dear to His
Majesty’s heart. He desires to hear pieces in German.
VAN SWIETEN: Why comic? It is not the function of
music to be funny.
SALIERI: Baron von Swieten. Prefect of the Imperial
Library. Ardent Freemason. Yet to find anything funny.
VAN SWITEN: I heard last week a remarkable serious
opera from Mozart.
ROSENBERG: A young fellow trying to impress beyond
his abilities. Too much spice. Too many notes.
STRACK: Kindly, convey the commission to him today.
ROSENBERG: We are going to have trouble with this
young man. Child prodigy spells trouble. His father is
Leopold Mozart, a bad-tempered musician who dragged
the boy endlessly around Europe, making him play the
keyboard blindfolded. All prodigies are hateful.
VAN SWIETEN: We meet tomorrow to devise pensions
for old musicians. You’re a worthy man, Salieri. You
should join our Brotherhood of Masons.
SALIERI: I would be honored, Baron!
VAN SWIETEN: We embrace men of talent of all
conditions. I may invite young Mozart, dependent on the
impression he makes.
SALIERI: Almost every man of influence in Vienna was a
Mason. As for Mozart, I was alarmed by his coming. Not
by the commission of a comic opera, even though I
myself was then attempting one called The Stolen
Bucket…No, what worried me were reports about the
man himself. He was praised too much.
V3: Such gaiety of spirit!
V1: Such ease of manner!
V2: Such natural charm!
SALIERI: Really? Where does he live?
V3: Peter Platz.
V1: The landlady, Madame Weber, has a tribe of
daughters.
V2: Mozart is after one of them.
V3: Constanze.
V1: Her mother’s pushing marriage!
V2: His father isn’t!
SALIERI: I want to meet him.
V3: He’ll be at the Baroness Waldstadten’s tomorrow
night.
V1: His music is to be played.
SALIERI: So I went. That night changed my life.
Scene Five
SALIERI: I entered the library and sat down in a high-
backed chair, unobservable to anyone who might come
in.
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
SALIERI: I ran home and buried my fear in my work.
More pupils. More committees to help musicians. More
to God’s glory. At night I prayed for one thing, “Let your
voice enter me! Let me be your conduit! Let me!” As for
Mozart, I avoided meeting him.
V1: Six fortepiano sonatas composed in Munich!
V2: Two in Mannheim!
V3: A Parisian symphony!
SALIERI: They were all clever, yet they seemed to me
completely empty!
V1: A Divertimento in D.
V2: A Cassazione in G.
V3: A Grand Litany in E flat.
SALIERI: Conventional. Boring. Nothing more. That
Serenade was obviously an exception in his work: the
sort of accident which might visit any composer on a
lucky day! Had I been simply taken by surprise that the
filthy creature could write music at all? Suddenly, I felt
immensely cheered! I would seek him out and welcome
him myself to Vienna!
Scene Seven
JOSEPH: Fetes and fireworks, gentlemen! Mozart is
here!
ALL: Majesty!
SALIERI: Emperor Joseph the Second of Austria. Son of
Maria Theresa. Brother of Marie Antoinette. Adorer of
music. Majesty, I have written a little march in Mozart’s
honor. May I play it as he comes in?
JOSEPH: Court Composer, what a delightful idea! Have
you met him?
SALIERI: Not yet, Majesty.
JOSEPH: Strack, bring him at once! Mon Dieu, I wish we
could have a competition! Mozart against some other
virtuoso. Two keyboards in a contest. Wouldn’t that be
fun?
VAN SWIETEN: Majesty, musicians are not horses to be
run against each other.
JOSEPH: Ah. Well—there it is!
STRACK: Herr Mozart, Majesty.
JOSEPH: Ah! Splendid! Court Composer—charming.
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!
VAN SWIETEN: Delighted to see you again!
JOSEPH: But not, our esteemed Court Composer. No
one who cares for art can afford not to know Herr Salieri.
He wrote that exquisite little March of Welcome for you.
SALIERI: It was a trifle, Majesty.
JOSEPH: Nevertheless…
MOZART: I’m overwhelmed, Signore!
JOSEPH: Let it be my pleasure to introduce you! Court
Composer Salieri—Herr Mozart of Salzburg. Mozart,
have you received our commission for the opera?
MOZART: Indeed I have, Majesty! You will have the best,
the most perfect entertainment ever offered a monarch.
I’ve already found a libretto.
ROSENBERG: I didn’t hear of this!
MOZART: Forgive me, I entirely omitted to tell you.
ROSENBERG: Why?
MOZART: It didn’t seem important.
ROSENBERG: It is important to me, Herr Mozart.
MOZART: Yes, I see that.
ROSENBERG: Who is it by?
MOZART: Stephanie.
ROSENBERG: A most unpleasant man.
MOZART: But a brilliant writer. The story really is
amusing, Majesty. The whole plot is set in a…
JOSEPH: Where? Where is it set?
MOZART: It’s—rather saucy, Majesty!
JOSEPH: Yes, yes! Where?
MOZART: It’s set in a…a pasha’s harem!
ROSENBERG: You imagine that is a suitable subject for
performance at a national theater?
MOZART: Why not? It’s very funny, there’s nothing
offensive in it! It’s full of proper German virtues.
JOSEPH: Name us a proper German virtue.
MOZART: Love, sire. I have yet to see that expressed in
any opera.
SALIERI: I was under the impression one rarely saw
anything else expressed in opera.
MOZART: I mean manly love, Signore. Not male
sopranos screeching. Or stupid couples rolling their
eyes. All that absurd Italian nonsense. I mean the real
thing.
JOSEPH: Do you know the real thing yourself, Herr
Mozart?
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
SALIERI: The first performance of The Abduction from
the Seraglio. The creature contrived to wear an even
more vulgar coat than usual. The music matched the
coat completely. For my dear Katherina Cavalieri he had
written the showiest Aria I’d ever heard. So ridiculous
was the piece, I knew precisely what Mozart must have
demanded in return for it. Although engaged to be
married, he’d had her! The creature had had my darling
girl.
CONSTANZE: Oh, well done, lovey! Well done, pussy
wussy! Oh…’scuse me!
MOZART: Majesty, may I present my fiancée, Fraulein
Weber.
JOSEPH: Enchante, Fraulein.
CONSTANZE: Your Majesty!
MOZART: Constanze is a singer herself.
CONSTANZE: I’m not at all, Majesty. Don’t be silly,
Wolfgang!
JOSEPH: So, Mozart. A good effort.
MOZART: Did you really like it, sire?
JOSEPH: I thought it was most interesting…well too
many notes.
MOZART: I don’t understand.
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
that, aren’t I, Court Composer?
SALIERI: Well, yes, on the whole, yes, Majesty.
JOSEPH: It’s clever. It’s German. It’s quality work.
Simply too many notes.
MOZART: There are just as many notes, Majesty, neither
more nor less, as are required.
JOSEPH: Ah…well—there it is!
MOZART: What did you think yourself, sir?
SALIERI: At its best, it is truly charming.
MOZART: And at other times?
SALIERI: Occasionally, Katherina’s aria, for example,
was a little excessive.
MOZART: Katherina is insatiable…I mean in regard to
vocal instruments.
SALIERI: My teacher used to say to me, one must avoid
music that smells like music.
MOZART: What does that mean?
SALIERI: Music which makes one aware too much of the
virtuosity of the composer. Won’t you introduce me to
your charming fiancée?
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: Seven months in this city and not one job! I
know what goes on, and so do you! Germany is
completely in the hands of worthless Italians like
Kapellmeister Bono!
STRACK: You’re in the man’s house!
MOZART: Salieri!
STRACK: Hush!
MOZART: Did you see his last opera—The Stolen
Bucket?! Unbearable! Pom-pom, pom-pom, pom-pom,
pom-pom! Not one interesting modulation all night.
Salieri is a musical idiot.
V3: He’d had too much to drink.
V1: He often has.
MOZART: Why are Italians so terrified by the slightest
complexity in music? No wonder the music at this court
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.
MOZART: Salieri has fifty pupils. I have three How am I
to live? I’m a married man now! You don’t concern
yourselves with money. Did you know behind his back
His Majesty is known as Kaiser Keep-It?
STRACK: Mozart!
ROSENBERG: Good night.
MOZART: No, please! Give me a post, sir.
ROSENBERG: That is not in my power, Mozart.
MOZART: Princess Elizabeth is looking for an instructor.
You could secure it for me.
ROSENBERG: That is solely in the recommendation of
Court Composer Salieri.
MOZART: I am better than any musician in Vienna. I’m
sick of Italians!
SALIERI: Barely one month later that thought of revenge
became more than a thought.
 Scene Ten
V2: Forfeit!
V3: Stanzerl, you’ve got to forfeit!
CONSTANZE: I won’t.
V1: You have to.
V2: It’s the game.
SALIERI: Believe it or not I was in the same concealing
chair in the library.
V3: You lost—now there’s the penalty!
SALIERI: A party celebrating the New Year’s Eve. I was
on my own—my dear spouse, Teresa, visiting her
parents in Italy.
CONSTANZE: What is it?
V1: I want to measure your calves.
CONSTANZE: Definitely not, you cheeky bugger!
V2: Come on!
V3: You’ve got to let him, Stanzerl! All’s fair in love and
(idk what it says here).
CONSTANZE: You can both buzz off!
V1: If you don’t let me you won’t be allowed to play again.
CONSTANZE: Choose something else.
V2: I’ve chosen that! Now get up on the table.
CONSTANZE: Quick then! Before anyone sees!
MOZART: Constanze! Do you realize what you’ve done?
CONSTANZE: No what?
MOZART: Lost your reputation! Now you’re a loose girl!
CONSTANZE: Don’t be so stupid.
MOZART: A married woman does not allow her legs to
be measured in public. Couldn’t you at least have
measured your own ugly legs?
CONSTANZE: What?
MOZART: Do you know what you’ve done?! You’ve
shamed me, shamed me!
CONSTANZE: You? Shamed you?! That’s a laugh! If
there’s any shame around, it’s mine! You’ve only had
every pupil who ever came to you.
MOZART: That’s not true.
CONSTANZE: Every single female pupil.
MOZART: Name them!
CONSTANZE: The Aurnhammer girl! The Rumbeck girl!
Katherina Cavalieri—that sly little whore! She wasn’t
even your pupil—she was Salieri’s! Which actually, my
dear, may be why he has hundreds and you have none.
He doesn’t drag them into bed.
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,
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.

CONSTANZE: Stop it now. MOZART: You don’t?

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
SALIERI: Next afternoon I waited in a fever. Would she
come? If she did, how would I behave? Was I actually
going to seduce a young wife of two months standing?
Part of me—much of me—wanted it badly. On the stroke!
She’d come!
CONSTANZE: Excellency!
SALIERI: You have come.
CONSTANZE: I should not have. My husband would be
frantic if he knew. He’s a jealous man.
SALIERI: You’re looking even prettier than you were last
night, if I may say so.
CONSTANZE: Ta very much. I brought you some
manuscripts by Wolfgang. When you see them, youll
understand how right he is for royal appointment. Will
you look at them please, while I wait?
SALIERI: Now?
CONSTANZE: Yes. I have to take them back with me.
He’ll miss them otherwise. These are all the originals.
SALIERI: I think you’re the most generous girl in the
world.
CONSTANZE: Generous?
SALIERI: It’s my word for you. I thought last night that
Constanze is altogether too stiff a name for that girl. I
shall rechristen her La Generosa. I’ll write a glorious
song for her under that title and she’ll sing it just for me.
CONSTANZE: I am much out of practice sir.
SALIERI: La Generosa. Don’t tell me it’s going to prove
inaccurate, my name for you.
CONSTANZE: What name do you give your wife,
Excellency?
SALIERI: I call my wife Signora Salieri. If I named her
anything else it would be La Statua. She is a very upright
lady.
CONSTANZE: I’d like to meet her.
SALIERI: Constanze, tomorrow evening I dine with the
emperor. One word from me recommending your
husband as tutor to the Princess Elizabeth and that
invaluable post is his. No one contradicts me.
CONSTANZE: I believe you.
SALLIERI: Surely service of that sort deserves a little
recompense in return?
CONSTANZE: How little?
SALIERI: The size of a kiss.
CONSTANZE: Just one?
SALIERI: If one seems fair to you.
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
SALIERI: Fiasco! What had he done to me, this Mozart?
Before he came, did I behave like this? Toy with
adultery? Blackmail women?
She said these were his original scores. It was
puzzling—then suddenly alarming. Mozart was simply
transcribing music completely finished in his head. I was
staring through the cage of those meticulous ink strokes
at—an Absolute Beauty! Now for the first time I feel my
emptiness.
You gave me the desire to serve You, to praise You. You
know how hard I’ve worked that I might hear Your Voice!
Now I do hear it—and it only says one name: MOZART!
Spiteful, sniggering, conceited, Mozart—who has never
worked one minute to help another. my only reward is to
be the sole man alive in this time who shall clearly
recognize Your Incarnation! So be it! From this time we
are enemies, do you hear?! They say God is not
mocked. I tell You I am not mocked! You are the enemy.
I swear: to my last breath I shall block You on earth.
I fought with God through His preferred creature Mozart.
In the waging of which, the Creature had to be destroyed.
Act Two
Scene one
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
to me? Goodness is nothing in the furnace of art. That
dreadful Night of the Manuscripts my life acquired a
terrible and thrilling purpose. The blocking of God in one
of His purest manifestations. I had the power. God
needed Mozart to let Himself into the world. Mozart was
the battleground. Barely one hour later— Constanze was
back. At ten o’clock at night! ….
CONSTANZE: My husband is at a soiree of Baron van
Swieten. A concert of Sebastian Bach. He didn’t think I
would enjoy it.
SALIERI: I see. I’ll ring if we require anything. Thank you.
CONSTANZE: Where do we go then?
SALIERI: What?
CONSTANZE: Do we do it in here? … Why not?
(She sits, still wearing her hat, in one of the little gilded
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!
CONSTANZE: You rotten ….
(Suddenly she runs at him, trying furiously to hit his face.
He grabs her arms, shakes her violently and hurls her on
the floor.)
SALIERI: Via!
I would have liked her, just then more than ever! But my
quarrel now wasn’t with Mozart--- it was through him!
Through him to God, who loved him so . Amadeus!......
Amadeus! ….
(He calms himself, going to the table and selecting
something to eat)
The next day, Katherina Cavalieri came for her lesson, I
made the same halting speech about “coins of
tenderness,” , Katherina found it sufficient. She --- kissed
me and slipped easily into my bed.
She remained there as my mistress for many years. So
much for my vow of sexual virtue. The same evening I
went to the Palace and resigned from all my committees
to help the lot of poor musicians. So much for my vow of
social virtue.
Then I went to the Emperor and recommended a man of
no talent whatever to instruct the Princess Elizabeth.
Scene Two
JOSEPH : Herr Sommer. A dull man, surely? What of
Mozart?
SALIERI: Majesty, I cannot with a clear conscience
recommend Mozart to teach royalty. One hears too many
stories.
JOSEPH: They may be just gossip.
SALIERI: One of them, I regret, relates to a protégée of
my own. A very young singer. Not pleasant, Majesty, but
true.
JOSEPH: I see… Let it be Herr Sommer, then. I daresay
he cant do much harm. To be frank, no one can do much
harm musically to the Princess Elizabeth.
SALIERI: Mozart certainly did not suspect me. The
Emperor announced the appointment . And I
commiserated with the loser.
MOZART: It’s my own fault. My father always writes I
should be more obedient. Know my place! ….
SALIERI: It was most serious loss as far as Mozart was
concerned.
Scene Three
V1: His list of pupils hardly moves.
V2: Six at most.
V3: And now a child!
V1: A boy.
SALIERI: Poor fellow. I prospered. This is the truth. If I
had expected fury from God, none came. Instead I came
to be regarded as the superior composer. My operas
were played everywhere and saluted by everyone! I
wrote a comic opera for Vienna.
V2: The talk of the city!
V3: Throughout all Europe!
SALIERI: It was incomprehensible.
Scene Four
SALIERI: I grew confident. I grew resplendent. I
worshiped the altar of sophistication!
V1:Mozart has asked leave to write an Italian opera.
SALIERI: Italian opera! Threat! My kingdom!
VAN SWIETEN: Figaro! …. The Marriage of Figaro! That
disgraceful play of Beaumarchais!
That’s all he can find to waste his talent on: a vulgar
farce! Noblemen lusting after chambermaids! Their wives
dressing up in stupid disguises… I simply cannot imagine
why Mozart should want to sset that rubbish to music!
(Mozart enters quickly from upstage, accompanied by
Strack. They join Salieri and Van Swieten)
MOZART: I want to do a piece about real people, Baron!
I want to set it in a real place! A boudoir! To me is the
most exciting place on earth! Underclothes on the floor!
Sheets still warm from a woman’s body!
VAN SWIETEN: Mozart!
MOZART: I want life. Not boring legends!
STRACK: Herr Salieri’s recent Danaius was a legend,
and did not bore the French.
MOZART: It is impossible to bore the French--- except
with real life!
VAN SWIETEN:I had assumed, now that you had joined
our Brotherhood, you would choose more elevated
themes. Opera is here to ennoble us, Mozart.
STRACK: Well said, sir.
MOZART: I don’t understand you! “ Ignorant Mozart.
Debasing opera with his vulgarity!” Herr Court Composer
thinking: “German Mozart. What can he finally know
about music?” And Mozart himself, in the middle,
thinking: “ I’m just a good fellow. Why do they all
disapprove of me?” Opera is important, because it’s
realer than any play! A dramatic poet would have to put
all those thoughts down one after another to represent
this second of time. The composer can put them all down
at once--- and still make us hear each one of them. I
want to write a finale lasting half an hour! A quartet
becoming a quintet becoming a sextet becoming a
septet. On and on, all sounds multiplying and rising
together--- together making a sound entirely new…. I bet
that’s how God hears the world! Millions of sounds
ascending at once and mixing in His ears to become
unending music, unimaginable to us! That’s our job, we
composers: to turn the audience into God.
VAN SWIETEN: You’re a good fellow under all your
nonsense. Just try, my friend, to be more serious with
your gifts.
SALIERI: Good fortune, Mozart.
MOZART: Grazie, Signore. Herr Chamberlain. Tell the
Emperor the opera’s finished.
STRACK: Finished?
MOZART: Right here in my noodle. The rest’s just
scribbling. Goodbye.
He’s going to be proud of me. You’ll see!
STRACK: That young man really is ….
SALIERI: Very lively!
STRACK: Intolerable!
SALIERI: How could I block this opera of Figaro?... within
six weeks the Creature had finished the entire score!
ROSENBERG: Figaro is complete! The first performance
will be on May the first.
SALIERI: So soon?
ROSENBERG: There’s no way we can stop it!
SALIERI: I have an idea.
ROSENBERG: What?
SALIERI: Mi ha ditto che c’e’ un balletto nel terzo atto?
ROSENBERG: Si
STRACK: What does he say?
SALIERI: E dimmi---- non e’ vero che I’Imperatore ha
probitio il balletto nelle sue opere?
ROSENBERG: Uno balletto ….. Ah!
SALIERI: Precisamente.
ROSENBERG: Oh , capiso! Ma che meraviglia! Perfetto!
( laughs in delight ) Veramente ingegnoso!
STRACK: What is it? What is he suggesting?
ROSENBERG: You are brilliant, Court Composer.
SALIERI: I ? … I have said nothing.
STRACK: I must tell you that Mozart is right in some
things. There is far too much Italian chittero—chattero at
this court!
Scene Five
ROSENBERG: …. Mozart! A word with you , please.
Right away. I would like to see your score of Figaro.
MOZART: Oh, yes. Why?
ROSENDBERG: Just bring it here to me. Into my hand,
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
appeared!
JOSEPH: I can’t wait for this, Mozart.
MOZART: Majesty!
SALIERI: Was this proof God had finally decided to
defend Mozart against me?
MOZART: I am so grateful to you, I cannot express---
SALIERI: Hush. Say nothing.
Strangely, His Majesty had arrived at precisely the
moment when the dancers would have begun, had not
they and their music been entirely cut. He and the rest of
us watched the dramatic action proceed in total silence—
peasants, in the center of the stage, stood absolutely
motionless, their arms frozen in the air.
JOSEPH: I don’t understand…. Is it modern?
MOZART: No, Majesty. The Herr Director had removed a
dance that would have occurred at this point.
JOSEPH: Why was this done?
ROSENBERG: It’s your own regulation, Sire. No ballet in
your opera.
MOZART: Majesty, It is entirely necessary to the story.
JOSEPH: It certainly looks very odd the way it is. I can’t
say I like it.
MOZART: Nor do I, Majesty.
ROSENBERG: It’s not a question of liking, Majesty. Your
own law decrees it.
JOSEPH: This is nonsense.
STRACK: Your Majesty, Count Rosenberg is very
worried that if this music is put back . One will have
thereafter to endure hours of dancing in opera.
JOSEPH: Chamberlain. I really think we can guard
against hours of dancing. Restore Herr Mozart’s music.
ROSENBERG: Majesty, I must insist----
JOSEPH: You will oblige me, Rosenberg! …. I wish to
hear Mozart’s music. Do you understand me?
ROSENBERG: Yes, Majesty.
MOZART: Oh, I thank Your Majesty!
JOSEPH: Very good. A little less enthusiasm, I beg you!
Scene Seven
SALIERI: Figaro was produced in spite of all my efforts. A
conspicuous defeat for me. Yet I was strangely excited.
My march! My poor March of Welcome--- now set to
enchant the world forever!
ROSENBERG: Almost in your style, but more vulgar, of
course. Trembling, I heard the second act. The restored
third act. The astounding fourth. Through my tears I saw
the Emperor ….. yawn.
JOSEPH: Most ingenious, Mozart. I do think we must onit
encores in future. It really makes things far too long.
Make a note, Rosenberg.
ROSENBERG: Majesty.
JOSEPH: Gentlemen, good night to you. Strack, attend
me.
MOZART: Herr Salieri . What do you think?
SALIERI: I think the piece is ……
MOZART: I’ll tell you what it is. It’s the best opera yet
written. Only I could have done it. No one else living.
V2: Rosenberg is furious.
V3: He’ll never forgive Mozart.
V1: He’ll do anything to get back at him!
SALIERI: It wasn’t hard to get the piece canceled. I saw
to it, Figaro was played only nine times! My defeat finally
turned into a victory. Was He taking any notice of me at
all?
MOZART: Withdrawn! Absolutely no plans for its revival!
SALIERI: If the public does not like one’s work, one has
to accept the fact gracefully. And certainly they didn’t.
V2: It’s too complicated!
V3: Too tiresome!
V1: All those morbid harmonies!
SALIERI: I decided to learn everything I could of his
weaknesses.
Scene Eight
MOZART: I’ll go to England! England loves music. When
I was a boy: they absolutely adored me. I had more
kisses than you’ve had cakes!... People loved me.
SALIERI: Perhaps they will again. Why don’t you go to
London?
MOZART: I have a wife and child and no money. I wrote
to Papa to take the boy off my hands just for a few
months and he refused!. He’s bitter man, after he’d
finished showing me off around Europe he never went
anywhere himself. Under everything he’s jealous of me!
He’ll never forgive me for being cleverer than he is. I’ll tell
you a secret. Leopold Mozart is just jealous, dried-up old
turd…. I actually detest him.
V123: Leopold Mozart is dead!
SALIERI: Death is inevitable, my friend.
MOZART: There’s no one else who understands the
wickedness around. He watched for me all my life--- and I
betrayed him.
SALIERI: Wolfgang. Don’t accuse yourself….
So rose the Ghost Father in Don Giovanni!
 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
to crush me. You know what happened? I had just
ruined Mozart’s career at court. God rewarded me by
granting me my dearest wish!
ALL: Kapellmeister Bonno is dead!
Scene Eleven
MOZART: Congratulations, sir!
SALIERI: Thank you. Clearly there was a change for the
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
Masons. They’re giving him money.
SALIERI: Of course! There could be no finally strarving
him with the Masons there to help! How could I stop it?
And quickly!
Scene Twelve
VAN SWIETEN: The lodge was not created for you to
beg from.
MOZART: What else can I do? I am no longer
fashionable.
VAN SWIETEN: I am not surprised! You write tasteless
comedies which give offense. I warned you, often
enough.
VAN SWIETEN: I will send you some fugues of Bach
tomorrow. You can arrange those for my Sunday concert.
You shall have a small fee.
MOZART: Thank you, Baron. I cannot live by arranging
Bach! I’ll have to do it. If he were to turn the lodge
against me, I’d be finished.
SALIERI: Wolfgang, you must allow me to relieve you
also.
MOZART: No!
SALIERI: If it is the duty of a Mason to help.
MOZART: Not another word! I’ll manage: Things are
looking up already. I’ve had a marvelous proposal from
Schikaneder. He’s a new member of this lodge.
SALIERI: Schikaneder? The actor?
MOZART: Yes. He wants me to write him something.
He’s offered me half the receipts when we open.
SALIERI: Nothing in advance?
MOZART: He said he couldn’t afford anything. It’s not
much of an offer. But a popular piece about brotherly
love could celebrate everything we believe as Masons!
SALIERI: Why don’t you put the Masons into it?
MOZART: What an idea?
SALIERI: Our rituals are secret, Wolfgang.
MOZART: I needn’t copy them. It could adapt them.
SALIERI: Take courage, Wolfgang. It’s a glorious idea.
Say nothing until it is done.
MOZART: Not a word. If they didn’t finish him off with
the Masons – nothing would!
Scene Thirteen
V1: Mozart!
V2: Writing a secret opera!
V3: And won’t tell anyone its theme.
SALIERI: He told me everything! All copied from the
Masons! … He sat at home preparing his own
destruction. A home where life grew daily more grim.
CONSTANZE: I’m cold all day …we have no firewood.
MOZART: Papa was right. We end exactly as he said.
Beggars.
CONSTANZE: It’s all his fault. He kept you a baby all
your life.
MOZART: I don’t understand… You always loved Papa.
You adored him. You tolf me so often
CONSTANZE: I hated him. And he hated me.
MOZART: You’re being extremely silly now.
CONSTANZE: At least it kept us warm! What else will
do that? We should dance! Dance to keep warm! Write
me a contredanze, Mozart! It’s your job to write dances,
isn’t it?
MOZART: Stop it! Stop it! I’m frightened, Stanzi…
Something awful’s happening to me. The pains and the
dream!...
CONSTANZE: I can’t bear much more of this.
MOZART: The Figure’s like this now-Here. Come here.
Here… Its face still hidden. Always hidden.
CONSTANZE: Stop it! ..Stop!... It’s me who’s
frightened…Me!... You frighten me… If you go on like this
I’ll leave you. I swear it.

CONSTANZE: Am I? Do you want to know what I really MOZART: Stanzi!

thought of your father? … Do you remember the fire we
CONSTANZE: I mean it….
had last night, it was so cold you couldn’t even get the ink
wet? You said “What a blaze,” remember? All those old MOZART: I’m sorry - Come here to me. Who am I?
papers gong up? My dear, those old papers were all our Quick: tell me.
father’s letters, every one he wrote since the day we
CONSTANZE: Miaowy-powy.
married.
MOZART: And you’re squeaky-peeky. And Stanzi-
MOZART: What:
manzi. And Bini-gini!
CONSTANZE: Every one! All the letters about what a
CONSTANZE: Wolfi-polfi!
ninny I am- what a bad housekeeper I am! Every one!
MOZART: Poopy-peepee!
MOZART: Stanzi!
CONSTANZE: Now don’t be stupid. (Show thinking
I don’t know how you feel about this
about leaving/discomfort.)
ALL 2&3: Something has happened/
MOZART: She’s gone! Constanze’s gone. Just for a
while, she says. She’s right to go! It’s my fault! She
thinks I’m mad.
SALIERI: Surely not?
MOZART: I think maybe I am. This morning I saw a
figure like the one in my dream. I was awake! – in my
room- broad daylight! I was seated at my table working.
Suddenly there cam three sharp knocks at the door, and
a Figure entered, but now it had a face! A death’s head!-
glaring at me. It spoke …
GRIM REAPER: Wolfgang Mozart: you are required now
by my Master to write a Requiem Mass…It must be
finished completely when you see me next.
MOZART: I asked, “Who has died? Who is this
Requiem for? Who is your Master?”
GRIM REAPER:”Know only this: He will be much
displeased with you if it is not ready when required!
Write quickly!”
MOZART: Then he vanished! I’m being silly, aren’t I?
SALIERI: Yes, I think you are.
MOZART: I frightened Stanzi away. Now she’ll miss the
Vaudeville-and I wrote so much of it to make her laugh.
The theatre isn’t grand. No one from court will be there.
SALIERI: Do you think that matters to me? I would
travel anywhere to hear a work by you! Could that figure
actually exist? A skull-faced ghost ordering a Mass from
beyond the grave? Clearly not!
MOZART: It’s time for the performance!
SALIERO: If you recall, I promised to cheer you up.
Well-behold!
MOZART: Katherina!
SALIERO: To the opera we went-a strange band of
three! The First Kapellmeister- His mistress-and Mozart.
Scene Fourteen
SALIERI: We sat among ordinary Germans. The smell of
sweat and sausage was almost annihilating! This is
exactly the audience we should be writing for! Not the
dreary court… The Magic Flute. He had put the Masons
into it right enough. He had turned them into a secret
order of Priests.
VAN SWIETEN: Mozart!
MOZART: Baron! You here!- How wonderful of you to
come!
SALIERI: I had, of course, suggested it.
VAN SWIETEN: You have put our rituals into a vulgar
show! They are plain for all to see! to laugh at! You
have betrayed the Order.
MOZART: No!
SALIERI: Baron, a word with you-
VAN SWIETEN: Don’t speak for him, Salieri! You are a
betrayer. I shall never forgive you! I shall ensure that no
Freemason or person of distinction will do so in Vienna
so long as I have life! Mozart, Never speak to me.
Scene Fifteen
SALIERI: all is not lost. Of course it was! He was ruined.
Hed did not even get his half receipts from the opera.
Mozart become really odd, sir.
V1: Stays in his apartment all day.
V2: Burns his candle all night.
V3: Twitching!
V1 Trembling!
ALL: Wolfgang has lost his wits!
SALIERI: Madness? There would lie my Victory. Loss of
wits must surely mean loss of talent! Was this what I had
actually done? I had to see for myself. One freezing
night, I found myself seeking his lodging.I stationed
myself to watch. Instantly, he appeared! A face distorted
by fear, staring straight down at my motionless figure, A
cry came faintly from behind the dirty glass, and through
it his mouth began shaping frenzied words:
“More!..More!...More time!... Time! “Oh pleeeeeese!
MOZART: Signore!...how wonderful…Come up!... Come
up!
Scene Sixteen
SALIERI: For the first time I saw a look I’d never seen
before-not madness at all, but some deep-possessing
sickness!
MOZART: Tell me, my friend-what are you doing here so
late?
SALIERI: I came to see you. Surely not working at this
hour?
MOZART: Nothing! Just silliness…A new piece.
SALIERI: It’s the Requiem-isn’t it?
MOZART: I know. It’s stupid. That Messenger isn’t real.
All the same, there’s no point in taking chances. If he
suddenly appeared and there was nothing from him, I’d
look foolish. It’s not finished. I’m feeling very poorly. I
know why! I’ve been poisoned.
SALIERI: Poisoned?
MOZART: They say the Masons poison people who
offend them! If he comes too soon, that Messenger, I’ll
say it to his face: “Tell your Master from me, if He takes
me too quick, there won’t be a Mass- so there!”
SALIERI: My friend, what are you saying?
MOZART: Isn’t it obvious? The Mass. It’s for me. I am
to write my own! There’s no need ordering a Requiem if
no one’s going to die! The worst thing is denying me
proper time. I’ve never in my life-offered unfinished work.
Take a look at it, tell me if it’s worthy. I don’t know
anymore. Everything’s leaving me. The sounds: they’re
SALIERI: From the day you appeared I have lived in
running away! My hand is tired- it can’t catch the notes
Hell… What I did to you was nothing to what you did to
now… My father would’ve approved that at least. He’d
me!
say, “Only you, my boy. Only you could have done it!”
Once the world was so full, so happy. Everyone smiled MOZART: Stop this, please, Signore
at me. Why has it all gone? … Was I so wicked/ Why
must I go? It’s bad, isn’t it? SALIERI: My God smiled-and permitted it! You left me
with nothing! You’re not to blame It’s His will I don’t hate
SALIERI: Bad? It will help the ages to mourn. you’re only an instrument.
MOZART: Oh grazie… Grazie, Signore!
SALIERI: Who was this for, this appalling music? What
need to mourn a man who will live forever? No one knew
absolutely who it was for! That eager boy who once
stumbled around the fields of Lombardy, singing up his
anthems to his Lord. In ten years of unrelenting spite-I
had destroyed myself! Confess to him! How else can
you live on after?” You are right. You are poisoned. It is He’s finished with you. You’re too feeble to be used
true. By me! No one else. We are both poisoned. anymore. God does not care, Amadeus. He cares
Together. nothing for whom He uses- nothing for whom he denies!
MOZART: I don’t understand. Bravo! Bravissiom!.. We are equal at least in that.
Signore, are you perhaps a little tiddly? I think you MOZART: NO! … It is stupid! Go away! Now!!
are!...Tiddly-widdly!
SALIERI: Hear me, for the last time. Grant me your
SALIERI: You have to listen -understand what has been forgiveness, for all my sins against you. All my damages,
done to you. my trespasses. Absolve me for all my cruelties-my
MOZART: Why are you being like this? … It’s stupid! slanders and malice- my destructive wickedness and
Why have you come here? What do you want? unworthy deeds. Do it. Do it!
Reduce the man-reduce the God. Behold my vow V3: He’s still trying to finish that Mass.
fulfilled. I left Refused. Of course! Grazie never – could
CONSTANZE: Can you hear me? If I’ve been a bore-if
I confess to anyone. Until you tonight. My last
I’ve nagged a bit about money, it didn’t mean anything.
It’s only because you spoilt me, lovely. You’ve got to get
well, we need you. Don’t leave- we wouldn’t know what
to do without you. You wouldn’t know much either, up in
Heaven, without us. But I’ve looked after you, admit that.
And I’ve given you fun too- Are you listening? It was the
best day of my life when you married me. As long as I
live I’ll be the most honored woman in the world… Can
you hear me?
She buries her face in his chest and weeps to forlorn music.

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
Composer, to become the pious keeper of his shrine. The
purity of his Mozart’s life is reflected absolutely in the
purity of his music! His music swells here.
. Walking slowly to the center of the stage…
For the curtain call, each side of the townspeople walk up to the
orchestra pit and cross, alternating stopping and throwing a rose into
the fiery pit. All the while, Mozart’s music is playing and a pre-
recording of Salieri’s laugh plays over the speakers through-out the
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.

After today, whenever men speak of Mozart’s name with

love, (crowd whispers again,” Mozart, Mozart, Mozart.”)
(an aside, now…) they will speak of mine with loathing!