Most scenes together: Salieri & Mozart (3), Salieri & Father Vogler (3)
Constanze May I offer you some tea, Herr Mozart?
Tea? Who wants tea? Let's go out! This calls for a feast. You don't want tea, do you, Papa?
Constanze Wolfie...
I know, let's go dancing! Papa loves parties, don't you?
Constanze Wolfie!
What? How you can be so boring? Tea...
"Confutatis maledictis" - when the wicked are confounded. "Flammis Acribus Adictis." How would you translate that?
Consigned to flames of woe.
Do you believe in it?
What?
A fire which never dies, burning you forever?
Oh yes.
Why must I submit samples of my work to some stupid committee just to teach a thirteen-year-old girl?
Count Von Strack Because His Majesty wishes it.
Is the emperor angry with me?
Count Von Strack Quite the contrary.
Then why doesn't he simply appoint me to the post?
Count Von Strack Mozart, you are not the only composer in Vienna.
No. But I'm the best!
Stop it!
I am stopping it! Slowly. There? See? I've stopped. Now we're going back.
No!
Yes, yes! You don't know where you are! Here, everything goes backwards. People walk backwards, dance backwards, sing backwards, and even talk backwards.
That's stupid.
Why? People fart backwards.
I'm so ashamed.
Of what?
I was foolish. I thought you did not care for my work or me. [softly] Forgive me. [Salieri appears visibly shaken] Forgive me...
Astounding! It was actually, it was beyond belief. These were first and only drafts of music. But they showed no corrections of any kind. Not one. He had simply written down music already finished in his head! Page after page of it, as if he were just taking dictation! And music, finished as no music is ever finished. Displace one note and there would be diminishment. Displace one phrase and the structure would fall. It was clear to me that sound I had heard in the Archbishop's palace had been no accident. Here again was the very voice of God! I was staring through the cage of those meticulous ink-strokes at an absolute beauty.
Constanze Is it not good?
Leave me alone.
I cannot leave alone a soul in pain.
Do you know who I am?
That makes no difference. All men are equal in God's eyes.
My plan was so simple. It terrified me. First I must get the death mass and then, I must achieve his death.
His funeral! Imagine it, the cathedral, all Vienna sitting there, his coffin, Mozart's little coffin in the middle, and then, in that silence, music! A divine music bursts out over them all. A great mass of death! Requiem mass for Wolfgang Mozart, composed by his devoted friend, Antonio Salieri! Oh what sublimity, what depth, what passion in the music! Salieri has been touched by God at last. And God is forced to listen! Powerless, powerless to stop it! I, for once in the end, laughing at Him! [beat] The only thing that worried me was the actual killing. How does one do that? Hmmm? How does one kill a man? It's one thing to dream about it; very different when, when you, when you have to do it...with your own hands.
How could I not?
How...Did my work please you?
Schikaneder Herr Mozart, why don't you name you son's penalty?!
I want you to come back to Salzburg with me, my son.
Papa, the rule is you can only give a penalty that can be performed in the room!
I'm tired of this game, I don't want to play anymore.
But my penalty! [jumping up and down like an angry child] I've got to have a penalty!
Can you recall no melody of mine? I was the most famous composer in Europe. I wrote forty operas alone. [suddenly inspired] Here, what about this one? [he plays the first few bars of Eine kleine Nachtmusik]
Yes, I know that! Oh, that's charming! I'm sorry, I didn't know you wrote that.
I didn't. [Father Volger's smile fades] That was Mozart. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
The man you accuse yourself of killing.
From now on, we are enemies... You and I. Because You choose for Your instrument a boastful, lustful, smutty, infantile boy and give me for reward only the ability to recognize the incarnation. Because You are unjust, unfair, unkind, I will block You, I swear it. I will hinder and harm Your creature on earth as far as I am able. I will ruin Your incarnation.
All I ever wanted was to sing to God. He gave me that longing... and then made me mute. Why? Tell me that. If He didn't want me to praise Him with music, why implant the desire? Like a lust in my body! And then deny me the talent?
My plan was so simple that it terrified me. First, I must get the death mass and then I must achieve his death....His funeral! Imagine it! The cathedral, all Vienna sitting there. His coffin, Mozart's little coffin in the middle. And then, in that silence, music! A divine music bursts out over them all. A great mass of death! Requiem mass for Wolfgang Mozart. Composed by his devoted friend, Antonio Salieri! Oh what sublimity! What depth! What passion in the music! Salieri has been touched by God at last. And God forced to listen! Powerless, powerless to stop it! I, for once, in the end, laughing at him! The only thing that worried me was the actual killing. How does one do that? Hmmm? How does one kill a man? It's one thing to dream about it. Very different when, when you, when you have to do it with your own hands.
Forgive me, Majesty. I am a vulgar man! But I assure you, my music is not.
I will speak for you, Father. I speak for all mediocrities in the world. I am their champion. I am their patron saint.
It's unbelievable, the director has actually torn up a huge section of my music. They say I have to rewrite the opera. But it's perfect as it is! I can't rewrite what's perfect!
