OLD SALIERI

Sample dialogue

• Suddenly he was dead. Just like that! And my life changed forever. My mother said, Go. Study music if you really want to. Off with you! And off I went as quick as I could and never saw Italy again. Of course, I knew God had arranged it all; that was obvious. One moment I was a frustrated boy in an obscure little town. The next I was here, in Vienna, city of musicians, sixteen years old and studying under Gluck! Gluck, Father. Do you know who he was? The greatest composer of his time. And he loved me! That was the wonder. He taught me everything he knew. And when I was ready, introduced me personally to the Emperor! Emperor Joseph - the musical king! Within a few years I was his court composer. Wasn't that incredible? Imperial Composer to His Majesty!

  scene 19, source scene 18 — INT. OLD SALIERI'S HOSPITAL ROOM - LATE AFTERNOON - 1823

• Leave me alone.

  scene 11, source scene 10 — INT. OLD SALIERI'S HOSPITAL ROOM - LATE AFTERNOON

• I was still playing childish games when he was playing music for kings and emperors. Even the Pope in Rome!

  scene 14, source scene 13 — EXT. A SMALL TOWN SQUARE IN LOMBARDY, ITALY - DAY - 1780'S13

• 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, inimitable beauty.

  scene 66, source scene 67 — INT. SALIERI'S SALON - LATE AFTERNOON - 1780'S

• So rose the dreadful ghost in his next and blackest opera. There on the stage stood the figure of a dead commander calling out 'Repent! Repent!'

  scene 126, source scene 128 — INT. AN OPERA HOUSE - NIGHT - 1780'S

Bookends

Often appears with

• VOGLER6 scenes
• MOZART3 scenes
• SALIERI3 scenes
• CAVALIERI2 scenes
• CONSTANZE2 scenes
• VALET2 scenes