"AMADEUS" (1984)

AMADEUS

Written by

Peter Shaffer

Total darkness. We hear an old man's voice, distinct and in distress. It is OLD SALIERI. He uses a mixture of English and occasionally Italian.

A faint light illuminates the screen. Flickeringly, we see an eighteenth century balustrade and a flight of stone stairs. We are looking down into the wall of the staircase from the point of view of the landing. Up the stair is coming a branched candlestick held by Salieri's VALET. By his side is Salieri's COOK, bearing a large dish of sugared cakes and biscuits. Both men are desperately worried: the Valet is thin and middle-aged; the Cook, plump and Italian. It is very cold. They wear shawls over their night-dresses and clogs on their feet. They wheeze as they climb. The candles throw their shadows up onto the peeling walls of the house, which is evidently an old one and in bad decay. A cat scuttles swiftly between their bare legs, as they reach the salon door.

The Valet tries the handle. It is locked. Behind it the voice goes on, rising in volume.

The Valet knocks gently on the door. The voice stops.

Silence.

The voice of Old Salieri continues again, further off now, and louder. We hear a noise as if a window is being opened.

The two servants look at each other in alarm. Then the Valet hands the candlestick to the Cook and takes a sugared cake from the dish, scrambling as quickly as he can back down the stairs.

The street is filled with people: ten cabs with drivers, five children, fifteen adults, two doormen, fifteen dancing couples and a sled and three dogs. It is a windy night. Snow is falling and whirling about. People are passing on foot, holding their cloaks tightly around them. Some of them are revelers in fancy dress: they wear masks on their faces or hanging around their necks, as if returning from parties. Now they are glancing up at the facade of the old house. The window above the street is open and Old Salieri stands there calling to the sky: a sharp-featured, white-haired Italian over seventy years old, wearing a stained dressing gown.

The door of the house bursts open. The Valet hobbles out, holding the sugared cake. The wind catches at his shawl.

Old Salieri stares down at him. Some of the passersby have now stopped and are watching this spectacle.

Old Salieri looks at him in contempt. Then he turns away back into the room, shutting the window with a bang. Through the glass, the old man stares down at the group of onlookers in the street. They stare back at him in confusion.

He makes a sign indicating 'crazy,' and goes back inside the house. The onlookers keep staring.

The Cook is standing holding the candlestick in one hand, the dish of cakes in the other. The Valet arrives, panting.

The Cook, scared, shakes his head: no. The Valet again knocks on the door.

He eats the sugared cake in his hand, elaborately and noisily.

We hear a thump from inside the bedroom.

We hear a terrible, throaty groaning.

He looks down. From under the door we see a trickle of blood flowing. In horror, the two men stare at it. The dish of cakes falls from the Cook's hand and shatters.

He sets the candlestick down on the floor. Both servants run at the door frantically - once, twice, three times - and the frail lock gives. The door flies open.

Immediately, the stormy, frenzied opening of Mozart's Symphony No. 25 (the Little G Minor) begins. We see what the servants see.

Old Salieri lies on the floor in a pool of blood, an open razor in his hand. He has cut his throat but is still alive. He gestures at them. They run to him. Barely, we glimpse the room - an old chair, old tables piled with books, a forte- piano, a chamber-pot on the floor - as the Valet and the Cook struggle to lift their old Master, and bind his bleeding throat with a napkin.

Twenty-five dancing couples, fifty guests, ten servants, full orchestra.

As the music slows a little, we see a Masquerade Ball in progress. A crowded room of dancers is executing the slow portion of a dance fashionable in the early 1820's.

As the fast music returns, we see Old Salieri being carried out of his house on a stretcher by two attendants, and placed in a horse-drawn wagon under the supervision of a middle- aged doctor in a tall hat. This is DOCTOR GULDEN. He gets in beside his patient. The driver whips up the horse, and the wagon dashes off through the still-falling snow.

MONTAGE:

The wagon is galloping through the snowy streets of the city. Inside the conveyance we see Old Salieri wrapped in blankets, half-conscious, being held by the hospital attendants. Doctor Gulden stares at him grimly. The wagon arrives outside the General Hospital of Vienna.

A wide, white-washed corridor. Doctor Gulden is walking down it with a priest, a man of about forty, concerned, but somewhat self-important. This is Father VOGLER, Chaplain at the hospital. In the corridor as they walk, we note several patients -- some of them visibly disturbed mentally. All patients wear white linen smocks. Doctor Gulden wears a dark frock-coat; Vogler, a cassock.

They stop outside a door.

Vogler nods and opens the door.

A bare room - one of the best available in the General Hospital. It contains a bed, a table with candles, chairs, a small forte-piano of the early nineteenth century. As Vogler enters, Old Salieri is sitting in a wheel-chair, looking out the window. His back is to us. The priest closes the door quietly behind him.

Old Salieri turns around to look at him. We see that his throat is bandaged expertly. He wears hospital garb, and over it the Civilian Medal and Chain with which we will later see the EMPEROR invest him.

He propels his wheelchair to the forte-piano, and plays an unrecognizable melody.

He plays another tune.

He plays it with growing enthusiasm.

We see the pretty soprano KATHERINA CAVALIERI, now about twenty-four, dressed in an elaborate mythological Persian costume, singing on stage. She's near the end of a very florid aria by Salieri. The audience applauds wildly.

Slyly he plays the opening measure of Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik. The priest nods, smiling suddenly, and hums a little with the music.

A very long pause. Salieri stares above the priest, seemingly lost in his own private world.

A further pause.

Pause.

Suddenly Old Salieri turns to him, a look of extreme innocence.

There are twelve children and twenty adults in the square. We see the fourteen-year-old Salieri blindfolded, playing a game of Blindman's Bluff with other Italian children, running about in the bright sunshine and laughing.

We see the six-year-old MOZART, also blindfolded, seated in a gilded chair on a pile of books, playing the harpsichord for the POPE and a suite of CARDINALS and other churchmen. Beside the little boy stands LEOPOLD, his father, smirking with pride.

The piece finishes. Leopold lowers the lid of the harpsichord and lifts up his little son to stand on it. Mozart removes the blindfold to show a pale little face with staring eyes. Both father and son bow. A Papal Chamberlain presents Leopold with a gold snuff box whilst the cardinals decorously applaud. Over this scene Old Salieri speaks.

Serene music of the Italian Baroque - Pergolesi's Stabat Mater - sung by a choir of boys with organ accompaniment. We see the outside of the 17th-century church sitting in the wide landscape of Lombardy: sunlit fields, a dusty, white road, poplar trees.

The music continues and swells. We see the twelve-year-old Salieri seated between his plump and placid parents in the congregation, listening in rapture. His father is a heavy- looking, self-approving man, obviously indifferent to the music. A large and austere Christ on the cross hangs over the altar. Candles burn below his image.

The boy falls forward on his knees. So do his parents and the other members of the congregation. He stares up at Christ who stares back at him.

The music swells to a crescendo. The candles flare. We see the Christ through the flames looking at the boy benignly.

CU, a large cooked fish on a thick china plate. Camera pulls back to show the Salieri family at dinner. Father Salieri sits at the head of the table, a napkin tucked into his chin. Mother Salieri is serving the fish into portions and handing them round. Two maiden aunts are in attendance, wearing black, and of course the young boy. Father Salieri receives his plate of fish and starts to eat greedily. Suddenly there is a gasp - he starts to choke violently on a fish bone. All the women get up and crowd around him, thumping and pummeling him, but it is in vain. Father Salieri collapses.

A grand room crowded with guests. A small group of Gypsy musicians is playing in the background. Thirteen members of the Archbishop's orchestra - all wind players, complete with wind instruments: elaborate-looking bassoons, basset horns, etc. and wearing their employer's livery - are laying out music on stands at one end of the room. At the other end is a large gilded chair, bearing the arms of the ARCHBISHOP OF SALZBURG. A throng of people is standing, talking, and preparing to sit upon the rows of waiting chairs to hear a concert.

We see Salieri, age thirty-one, a neat, carefully turned-cut man in decent black clothes and clean white linen, walking through the crowd of guests. We follow him.

We see shots of assorted young men staring back at Salieri as he moves through the crowd.

Some of the men recognize Salieri and bow respectfully. Then suddenly a servant bearing a large tray of cakes and pastries stalks past. Instantly riveted by the sight of such delights, Salieri follows him out of the Grand Salon.

The servant marches along bearing his tray of pastries aloft. Salieri follows him.

The servant turns into:

Salieri's POV: several tables, dressed to the floor with cloths are loaded with many plates of confectionery. It is, in fact, Salieri's idea of paradise! The servant puts his tray down on one of the tables and withdraws from the room.

Salieri turns away so as not to be noticed by the servant. As soon as the man disappears, Salieri sneaks into the buffet room.

Salieri enters the room and looks about him cautiously. He is salivating with anticipation as he stares at the feast of sweet things. His attention is attracted in particular by a huge pile of dark chocolate balls arranged in the shape of a pineapple. He reaches out a hand to steal one of the balls, but at the same moment he hears giggling coming toward him. He ducks down behind the pastry table.

A girl - CONSTANZE - rushes into the room. She runs straight across it and hides herself behind one of the tables.

After a beat of total silence, MOZART runs into the room, stops, and looks around.

He is age twenty-six, wearing a fine wig and a brilliant coat with the insignia of the Archbishop of Salzburg upon it. He is puzzled; Constanze has disappeared.

Baffled, he turns and is about to leave the room, when Constanze suddenly squeaks from under the cloth like a tiny mouse. Instantly Mozart drops to all fours and starts crawling across the floor, meowing and hissing like a naughty cat. Watched by an astonished Salieri, Mozart disappears under the cloth and obviously pounces upon Constanze. We hear a high-pitched giggle, which is going to characterize Mozart throughout the film.

The throng is mostly seated. The musicians are in their places, holding their various exotic-looking wind instruments; the candles are all lit. A Majordomo appears and bangs his staff on the floor for attention. Immediately COLLOREDO, Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg enters. He is a small self- important figure of fifty in a wig, surmounted by a scarlet skullcap. He is followed by his Chamberlain, the Count ARCO. Everyone stands. The Archbishop goes to his throne and sits. His guests sit also. Arco gives the signal to start the music. Nothing happens. Instead, a wind musician gets up, approaches the Chamberlain and whispers in his ear. Arco in turn whispers to the Archbishop.

Three servants are opening doors and looking into rooms going off the corridor.

The guests are turning around and looking at the Archbishop. The musicians are watching. There is puzzlement and a murmur of comment. The Archbishop tightens his lip.

Mozart is on his knees before the tablecloth, which reaches to the floor. Under it is Constanze. We hear her giggling as he talks.

He grabs her ankle. She screams. He pulls her out by her leg.

They roll on the floor. He tickles her.

He tries to drag her back under the table.

She laughs delightedly, then addresses an imaginary Archbishop.

He gives a high pitched giggle.

The mood becomes suddenly softer. She kisses him. They embrace. Then he spoils it.

Shocked, she strikes at him. At the same moment the music starts in the salon next door. We hear the opening of the Serenade for Thirteen Wind Instruments, K.

He leaps up, disheveled and rumpled and runs out of the room. Salieri watches in amazement and disgust.

The music is louder. Mozart hastens towards the Grand Salon away from the buffet room, adjusting his dress as he goes.

The opening of the Serenade is being tentatively conducted by the leader of the wind-musicians. Guests turn around as Mozart appears - bowing to the Archbishop - and walks with an attempt at dignity to the dais where the wind band is playing. The leader yields his place to the composer and Mozart smoothly takes over conducting.

Constanze, deeply embarrassed, sneaks into the room and seats herself at the back.

The music fades down. Salieri stands shocked from his inadvertent eavesdropping. After a second he moves almost in a trance toward the door; the music dissolves.

Mozart is conducting the Adagio from his Serenade (K. 361), guiding the thirteen wind instrumentalists. The squeezebox opening of the movement begins. Salieri appears at the door at the back of the salon. He stares in disbelief at Mozart.

The music swells up and Salieri listens to it with eyes closed - amazed, transported - suddenly engulfed by the sound. Finally it fades down and away and changes into applause. Salieri opens his eyes.

The audience is clearly delighted. Mozart bows to them, also delighted.

Colloredo rises abruptly, and without looking at Mozart or applauding and leaves the Salon. Count Arco approaches the composer. Mozart turns to him, radiant.

He follows Arco out of the room, through a throng of admirers.

Mozart and Arco walk side by side. They pass Salieri who is staring at Mozart in fascination. As they disappear, he steals toward the music stands, unable to help himself.

They arrive at the door of Colloredo's private apartment.

Arco opens the door.

The Archbishop is sitting, chatting to quests. Among them are several ladies. Arco approaches him obsequiously.

The company watches this scene, deeply interested.

He extends his hand to be kissed. Mozart does it with a furious grace, then leaves the room. As he opens the door we see:

A group of people who have attended the concert, among them Constanze, are standing outside the private apartment. At sight of the composer they break into sustained applause. Mozart is suddenly delighted. He throws the door wide open

so that the guests can see into the private apartment where the Archbishop sits - and he can see them. Colloredo is clearly discomfited by this reception of his employee. He smiles and bows uneasily, as they include him in the small ovation.

Mozart stands in the corridor, out of the Archbishop's line of sight, bowing and giggling, and encouraging the applause for the Archbishop with conducting gestures. Suddenly irritated, Colloredo signs to Arco, who steps forward and shuts the door, ending the applause.

Salieri, in this vast room, is standing and looking at the full score of the Serenade. He turns the pages back to the slow movement. Instantly, we again hear its lyrical strains.

CU, Salieri, reading the score of the Adagio in helpless fascination. The music is played against his description of it.

Suddenly the music snaps off. Mozart stands before him as he lays down the score.

He takes the score, bows, and struts briskly out of the room. Salieri stares uncomprehendingly after the jaunty little figure.

At the table sits the EMPEROR JOSEPH II, eating his frugal dinner and sipping goat's milk. He is an intelligent, dapper man of forty, wearing a military uniform. Around him but standing, are his Chamberlain, JOHANN VON STRACK: stiff and highly correct. COUNT ORSINI-ROSENBERG: a corpulent man of sixty, highly conscious of his position as Director of the Opera. BARON VON SWIETEN, the Imperial Librarian: a grave but kindly and educated man in his mid-fifties. FIRST KAPELLMEISTER GIUSEPPE BONNO: very Italian, cringing and time-serving, aged about seventy. And Salieri, wearing decorous black, as usual.

At a side-table, two Imperial secretaries, using quill pens and inkstands, write down everything of importance that is said.

He looks defiantly at Orsini-Rosenberg.

A somber room which serves both as a bedroom and a study. We see a four-poster bed. Also, a marble mantelpiece above which hangs a handsome cross in olivewood, bearing the figure of a severe Christ. Opposite this image sits Salieri at his desk, on which stands a pile of music paper, quill pens and ink. On one side of him is an open forte-piano on which he occasionally tries notes from the march he is composing, with some difficulty. He scratches notes out with his quill, and ruffles his hair - which we see without a powdered wig. There is a knock at the door.

A servant admits LORL, a young lower-class girl, who appears carrying a basket in which is a box covered with a napkin. She has just come from the baker's shop.

Greedily he unwraps the napkin and lifts the lid on the box.

He takes a biscuit and eats.

She gives a little curtsey, flattered and giggling and is shown out. Salieri turns back to his work, chewing. He plays through a complete line of the march. He smiles, pleased with the result.

He inclines his head to the Christ above the fireplace, and starts to play the whole march, including the phrase which pleased him.

The march continues on the forte-piano as we see Mozart, seated in front of a mirror, wearing an extravagant wig. On either side of him stands a SALESMAN, one of them holding another wig, equally extravagant. Mozart takes off the first wig, to reveal his own blonde hair, of which he is extremely proud, and hands it back.

The Salesman puts the second wig on his head. Mozart pulls a face of doubt in the mirror.

He takes it off and the other Salesman replaces it with the first wig on his head.

He giggles. The music stops.

A door opens. We glimpse in the next room the Emperor Joseph bidding goodbye to a group of military officers standing around a table.

He turns and comes into the salon, where another group awaits him. It consists of Von Strack, Orsini-Rosenberg, Bonno, Von Swieten and Salieri. The room contains several gilded chairs dotted about, and a forte-piano.

All bow and say, Good morning, Your Majesty!

He produces a paper.

The Emperor goes to the instrument, sits and plays the first bars of it. Quite well.

The Majordomo bows and goes. The Emperor addresses himself to the march. He plays a wrong note.

Taking his instructions literally, the Majordomo is marching very slowly toward the salon door. He is followed by a bewildered Mozart, dressed very stylishly and wearing one of the wigs from the perruqier.

Joseph finishes the march. The door opens.

Mozart comes in eagerly. Immediately the march begins, played by His Majesty. All the courtiers stand, listening with admiration. Joseph plays well, but applies himself fiercely to the manuscript. Mozart, still bewildered, regards the scene, but does not seem to pay attention to the music itself. It finishes and all clap obsequiously.

The Emperor rises, pleased with himself. He snatches the manuscript off the stand and holds it in his hand for the rest of the scene.

He extends his hand. Mozart throws himself to his knees, and to Joseph's discomfort kisses the royal hand with fervour.

Embarrassed, Mozart bursts into a wild giggle. Joseph helps him out.

Von Strack and Bonno nod.

Orsini-Rosenberg nods without enthusiasm.

He bows elaborately. Salieri inclines himself, dryly.

He stops short with a little giggle.

He giggles again. Orsini-Rosenberg looks at him sourly.

The Italian faction - Orsini-Rosenberg and Bonno - laugh discreetly.

An embarrassed pause. Bonno giggles in nervous amusement.

Pause. Joseph is clearly pleased.

He nods - he has wanted this result all the time. He turns and makes for the door. All bow. Then he becomes aware of the manuscript in his hand.

Mozart does not take it.

Pause.

Mozart bows and hands the manuscript back to the Emperor. Then he goes to the forte-piano and seats himself. The others, except for Salieri, gather around the manuscript held by the King. Mozart plays the first half of the march with deadly accuracy.

He plays the first half again but stops in the middle of a phrase, which he repeats dubiously.

All the courtiers look at Salieri.

He plays another phrase.

He plays another phrase. Gradually, he alters the music so that it turns into the celebrated march to be used later in The Marriage of Figaro, Non Piu Andrai. He plays it with increasing abandon and virtuosity. Salieri watches with a fixed smile on his face. The court watches, astonished. He finishes in great glory, takes his hands off the keys with a gesture of triumph - and grins.

We see the olivewood cross. Salieri is sitting at his desk, staring at it.

There is a knock at the door. He does not hear it, but sits on. Another knock, louder.

Lorl comes in.

He gets up and enters:

KATHERINA CAVALIERI, a young, high-spirited soprano of twenty is waiting for him, dressed in a fashionable dress and wearing on her head an exotic turban of satin, with a feather. Lorl exits.

He seats himself at the forte-piano.

He plays a chord. She sings a scale, expertly. He strikes another chord. She starts another scale, then breaks off.

He strikes the chord again, firmly. Cavalieri sings her next scale, then another one, and another one, doing her exercises in earnest. As she hits a sustained high note the orchestral accompaniment in the middle of Martern Aller Arten from Il Seraglio comes in underneath and the music changes from exercises to the exceedingly florid aria.

We DISSOLVE on the singer's face, and she is suddenly not merely turbaned, but painted and dressed totally in a Turkish manner, and we are on:

The heroine of the opera (Cavalieri) is in full cry addressing the Pasha with scorn and defiance.

The house is full. Watching the performance - which is conducted by Mozart from the clavier in the midst of the orchestra - we note Von Strack, Orsini-Rosenberg, Bonno and Von Swieten, all grouped around the Emperor, in a box.

In another box we see an overdressed, middle-aged woman and three girls, one of whom is Constanze. This is the formidable MADAME WEBER and her three daughters, Constanze, JOSEFA and SOPHIE.

All are enraptured by the spectacle and Madame Weber is especially enraptured by being there at all. Not so, Salieri, who sits in another box, coldly watching the stage.

Cavalieri is singing Martern aller Arten from the line Doch du bist entschlossen.

After a few moments of this showy aria, with the composer and the singer staring at each other - he conducting elaborately for her benefit, and she following his beat with rapturous eyes - the music fades, and Salieri speaks over it.

Music up again for the last 30 bars of the aria.

Before the orchestral coda ends, cut to:

Through the window we see that night has fallen.

The brilliant Turkish finale of Seraglio bursts over us. All the cast is lined up on stage. Mozart is conducting with happy excitement.

The curtains fall. Much applause. The Emperor claps vigorously and - following his lead - so do the courtiers. The curtains part. Mozart applauds the singers who applaud him back. He skips up onto the stage amongst them. The curtains fall again as they all bow. In the auditorium, the chandeliers descend, filling it with light.

The curtains are down, and an excited hubbub of singers in costume surround Mozart and Cavalieri, all excited and chattering. Suddenly a hush. The Emperor is seen approaching from the wings, lit by flunkies holding candles. Von Strack, Orsini-Rosenberg and Von Swieten, amongst others, follow him. Also Salieri. The singers line up. Joseph stops at Cavalieri who makes a deep curtsey.

All are applauding Cavalieri. The Emperor turns to Mozart.

Mozart bows frantically: he is over-excited.

Pause. General embarrassment.

Into this uncomfortable scene bursts a sudden eruption of noise and Madame Weber floods onto the stage, followed by her daughters. All turn to look at this amazing spectacle.

She moves toward Mozart with arms outstretched in an absurd theatrical gesture, then sees the Emperor. She stares at him, mesmerized, her mouth open, unable even to curtsey.

Mozart moves forward quickly.

Constanze curtsies. CU, of Cavalieri, astonished at the news. CU, of Salieri, watching her receive it.

He giggles uncomfortably.

Cavalieri is glaring at Mozart. Mozart looks hastily away from her.

She attempts to kiss the royal hand, but faints instead. The Emperor contemplates her prone body and steps back a pace.

He nods pleasantly to all and leaves the stage, with his Chamberlain. All bow.

Cavalieri turns with a savage look at Mozart and leaves the stage the opposite way, to her dressing room, tossing her plumed head. Salieri watches.

Mozart stays for a second, indecisive whether to follow the soprano or help Madame Weber.

He hurries away. The daughters gather around Madame Weber.

Katherina sits fuming at her mirror. A dresser is taking the pins out of her wig as she stares straight ahead of her. Mozart sticks his head round the door.

He dashes off.

Constanze and Mozart make their way quickly through a crowd of actors in turbans and caftans, and stagehands carrying bits of the dismantled set of Seraglio. We see all the turmoil of backstage after a performance.

A fireman passes Mozart carrying a small bucket of water. Mozart snatches it from him and pushes his way through the crowd to Madame Weber, who still lies prone on the stage.

Mozart pushes through the crowd surrounding her and throws water on her face. She is instantly revived by the shock. Constanze assists her to rise.

Instead of being furious, Madame Weber smiles at them rapturously.

The activity continues to swirl around them.

Cavalieri, still in costume, is marching up and down, very agitated.

She catches him looking at her and tries to compose herself.

Mozart comes in unexpectedly.

She seats herself at her mirror and removes her wig.

Salieri looks astonished. There is a knock on the door.

The door opens. Constanze enters.

Mozart hurries Constanze out of the door. Cavalieri looks after them as they go, her voice breaking and rising out of control.

She turns and collapses, crying with rage, into Salieri's arms. We focus on him.

The old man speaks passionately to the priest.

The young Salieri is kneeling in desperation before the Cross.

CU, Christ staring from the Cross.

We see Leopold kneeling now not to the Cross but to Archbishop Colloredo, sitting impassively on his throne. Count Arco stands beside him. Leopold is a desperate, once- handsome man of sixty, now far too much the subservient courtier.

In deepest gratitude he kisses the Archbishop's hand. He motions Leopold to rise. We hear the first dark fortissimo chord which begins the Overture to Don Giovanni: the theme associated with the character of the Commendatore.

The second fortissimo chord sounds.

We see a huge CU, of Mozart's head, looking front and down, as if reading his father's letter. We hear Leopold's voice over this image, no longer whining and anxious, but impressive.

The camera pulls back to see that he is in fact kneeling beside Constanze. A PRIEST faces them. Behind them are Madame Weber, Josefa and Sophie Weber, and a very few others. Among them, a merry looking lady in bright clothes: the BARONESS WALDSTADTEN.

The opening kyrie of the great Mass in C Minor is heard. Mozart and Constanze kiss. They are in tears.

Madame Weber and her daughters look on approvingly. The music swells and continues under the following:

There is a view of a castle in background. Leopold sits alone in his room. He is reading a letter from Wolfgang. At his feet are his trunks, half-packed for the journey he will not now take. We hear Mozart's voice reading the following letter and we see, as the camera roves around the room, mementos of the young prodigy's early life: the little forte- piano made for him; the little violin made for him; an Order presented to him. We see a little starling in a wicker cage. And we see portraits of the boy on the walls, concluding with the familiar family portrait of Wolfgang and his sister Nannerl seated at the keyboard with Leopold standing, and the picture of their mother on the wall behind them.

The music of the Mass fades as Leopold crumples the letter in his hand.

Salieri stands waiting, hat in hand. Beside him stands a royal servant. Behind him, gardeners are glimpsed tending the shrubs and bushes along a grassy ride. Down this ride are seen cantering two people on horseback: the Emperor Joseph and his niece, the PRINCESS ELIZABETH. They are mounted on glossy horses. The Princess rides side-saddle. Running beside her is a panting groom. The Emperor rides elegantly; his niece, a dumpy little Hapsburg girl of sixteen, like a sack of potatoes.

As they draw level with Salieri they stop, and the groom holds the head of the Princess' horse. Salieri bows respectfully.

Out of breath, the Princess nods nervously.

He smiles at Salieri.

Salieri's face falls, almost imperceptibly.

He rides on. The groom releases her horse's head, and runs on after the Princess.

Von Strack sits stiffly behind his gilded desk. Mozart stands before him, trembling with anger.

The room is very small and untidy. Constanze is marching up and down it, upset. Mozart is lying on the bed.

She glares at him, almost in tears.

Salieri is giving a lesson to a girl student, who is singing the Italian art song, Caro Mio Ben.

There is a knock on the door.

A SERVANT enters.

Salieri goes into the salon.

Constanze stands, closely veiled, holding a portfolio stuffed with manuscripts.

The singing lesson ends, with two chords on the instrument. Salieri enters the salon. Constanze drops him a shy curtsey.

Shyly, she unveils.

He takes the portfolio and puts it on a table.

A short pause.

He indicates a dish piled high with glazed chestnuts.

He offers her the dish. She takes one and puts it in her mouth. He watches carefully.

He takes one himself. We notice on his finger a heavy gold signet-ring.

He smiles at her. She takes another chestnut.

A pause. He puts out his hand and takes up the portfolio from the table. He opens it. He looks at the music. He is puzzled.

The old man faces the Priest.

Vogler stares at him.

CU, The manuscript in Mozart's handwriting. The music begins to sound under the following:

The music swells. What we now hear is an amazing collage of great passages from Mozart's music, ravishing to Salieri and to us. The Court Composer, oblivious to Constanze, who sits happily chewing chestnuts, her mouth covered in sugar, walks around and around his salon, reading the pages and dropping them on the floor when he is done with them. We see his agonized and wondering face: he shudders as if in a rough and tumbling sea; he experiences the point where beauty and great pain coalesce. More pages fall than he can read, scattering across the floor in a white cascade, as he circles the room.

Finally, we hear the tremendous Qui Tollis from the Mass in C Minor. It seems to break over him like a wave and, unable to bear any more of it, he slams the portfolio shut. Instantly, the music breaks off, reverberating in his head. He stands shaking, staring wildly. Constanze gets up, perplexed.

A pause.

Another pause.

Salieri tries to recover himself.

Overjoyed, she stops and kisses his hand. He raises her - and then clasps her to him clumsily. She pushes herself away.

They stare at one another: Constanze in total disbelief.

He glares at her.

He rings a silver bell for a servant and abruptly leaves the roam. Constanze stares after him, horrified.

The servant enters. Shocked and stunned, Constanze goes down an her knees and starts picking up the music from the floor.

CU, Father Vogler, horrified.

Salieri sits at his desk, staring up at the cross.

Long, long silence. Salieri stares at the cross. Christ stares back at him impassively. Finally in this silence we hear a faint knocking at the door. Salieri stirs himself. A servant appears.

The Servant bows and leaves. We follow him through:

The Servant crosses it and enters:

Constanze is sitting on an upright chair, veiled as before, the portfolio of music on her lap. Through the far door leading from the hall, another servant is peering at her. The first servant joins him and shuts the door on the girl, leaving her alone.

We stay with her. The clock ticks on the mantelpiece. We hear an old carriage pass in the street below. Nervously she lifts her veil and looks about her.

Suddenly Salieri appears from the music room. He is pale and very tight. They regard each other. She smiles and rises to greet him, affecting a relaxed and warm manner, as if to put him at his ease.

A pause.

As she talks, she extinguishes the candles in a pair of Venetian candelabra and subsequently other candles around the room.

She turns and takes off her shawl.

She picks up the portfolio.

She looks at him inquiringly, and drops the portfolio on the floor; pages of music pour out of it. Instantly we hear a massive chord, and the great Qui Tollis from the Mass in C Minor fills the room. To its grand and weighty sound, Constanze starts to undress, watched by the horrified Salieri. Between him and her, music is an active presence, hurting and baffling him. He opens his mouth in distress. The music pounds in his head. The candle flickers over her as she removes her clothes and prepares for his embrace. Suddenly he cries out.

He snatches up the bell and shakes it frantically, not stopping until the two servants we saw earlier appear at the door. The music stops abruptly. They stare at the appalled and frightened Constanze, who is desperately trying to cover her nakedness.

Constanze hurls herself at him.

He seizes her wrists and thrusts her back. Then he leaves the room quickly, slamming the door behind him. Constanze turns and sees the two servants goggling at her in the room.

Wildly, she picks up the candelabrum and throws it at them. It shatters on the floor.

CU, Salieri standing, his eyes shut, shaking in distress. He opens them and sees Christ across the room, staring at him from the wall.

73 I! 73

The old man is reliving the experience. Vogler looks at him, horrified.

CU, the fireplace. In it lies the olivewood Christ on the cross, burning.

The cross flames up and disintegrates. Salieri stares at it.

The front door bursts open. Mozart stumbles in, followed by EMMANUEL SCHIKANEDER, three young actresses, and another man, all fairly drunk. Schikaneder (who appears everywhere accompanied by young girls) is a large, fleshy, extravagant man of about thirty-five.

The others laugh.

He walks unsteadily to the bedroom door and opens it.

Constanze lies in bed, her back turned to her husband, who comes into the room and shuts the door.

She turns around abruptly. She looks dreadful; her eyes red with weeping. Mozart is shocked.

He approaches the bed and sits on it. Immediately she starts crying again, desperately.

He holds her and she clings to him in a fierce embrace, crying a flood of tears.

She starts crying again, throwing her arms around his neck.

Joseph sits eating. A butler serves him goat's milk to drink. Joseph is holding a memorandum from Salieri in his hand. Salieri stands before him.

With a gesture Joseph dismisses the butler, who bows and leaves the room.

A pause.

Salieri has just returned from the palace and is coming up the staircase. He is met by his servant.

Salieri is plainly alarmed.

He mounts the stairs.

Mozart is waiting for Salieri, holding a portfolio. Salieri approaches him nervously. Mozart stands not belligerently, but humbly.

Salieri looks at him in distress.

Mozart chuckles delightedly. Salieri offers him a glass of white dessert and a spoon. Mozart takes it absently and goes on talking.

Hysterical barking and howling. The hall is full of dogs, at least five, all jumping up and dashing about and making a terrific racket. Mozart, dandified in a new coat and a plumed hat for the occasion, has arrived to teach at the house of a prosperous merchant, MICHAEL SCHLUMBERG. Bluff, friendly and coarse-looking, he stands in his hall amidst the leaping and barking animals, greeting Mozart.

He leads Mozart through the throng of dogs into a salon furnished with comfortable middle-class taste.

FRAU SCHLUMBERG appears: an anxious woman in middle life.

GERTRUDE SCHLUMBERG appears in the doorway: an awkward girl of fifteen in her best dress, her hair primped and curled. She is exceedingly nervous.

Gertrude giggles instead.

He leads the way into:

A forte-piano is open and waiting. All the dogs follow him. After them come Mozart Frau and Fraulein Schlumberg. To Mozart's dismay, husband and wife seat themselves quite formally on a little narrow sofa, side by side.

The dogs settle at their feet. Husband and wife smile encouragingly at each other.

Mozart gestures to the music bench. Reluctantly, the girl sits at the instrument. Mozart sits beside her.

In response the wretched girl just stares down at the keyboard without playing a note. An awkward pause.

Husband and wife look at each other.

Silence. The girl sits unmoving. Schlumberg bellows:

Suddenly the girl rises. Mozart smiles at the parents. They smile nervously back. Mozart slides along the bench, raises his hands and preludes over the keys. Instantly a dog howls loudly. Startled, Mozart stops. Schlumberg leaps to his feet and goes over to the beagle.

Mozart resumes playing. This time it is a lively piece, perhaps the Presto Finale from the K. 450. The dog howls immediately.

Mozart stops.

Amazed, Mozart starts to play the Rondo again. The dog howls louder.

Mozart plays on. Suddenly the dog falls silent. Schlumberg smiles broadly.

The wife scurries to get a jar of biscuits. A servant brings in an open bottle of wine and a full glass on a tray. He puts it down beside Mozart as Schlumberg addresses the silent dog with deepest affection.

He gives the biscuit to the dog who swallows it greedily. Mozart stops playing and stands up.

He bows to them and leaves the room. They look after him in puzzled astonishment.

A cheerful scene. We see Mozart strutting and beaming, making his way through the crowd of porters, carriers and hawkers, sellers of sausages and pastries, vendors of hats and ribbons. Horses and carriage clatter past him. His mood is best expressed by a bubbling version of Non piu Andrai played on the forte-piano.

Still in the same mood, he enters the door of his own house.

Suddenly, he stops. He looks up the stairs. The grim opening chords from the Overture to Don Giovanni cut across the march from Figaro. What he sees, looking up the stairs, is a menacing figure in a long, grey cape and dark grey hat, standing on the landing. The light comes from behind the figure so that we see only its silhouette as it unfolds its arms towards Mozart in an alarming gesture of possession. It takes a beat in which the air of sinister mystery is held before Mozart realizes who it is. Then, as the music continues, he hastily sets down the bottle of wine and rushes joyfully up the stairs and hurls himself into the figure's arms.

Both men embrace. The music slowly fades.

A cramped, low-ceilinged little room which nobody has tidied for ages. We see music lying everywhere. Also there are many empty wine bottles; musical instruments - among them a mandolin, a viola, a forte-piano with the black and white keys reversed - books and abandoned plates of food.

Mozart clasps his father's arms. Leopold is now seen as an aging, travel-stained man in clothes that need repair. His face is lined, and he is obviously not in perfect health.

He kisses his hands.

Mozart ducks away and fetches his father's bags from the landing.

Leopold looks about him at the mess in the room.

He carries the bag across the room and opens the door of the bedroom. Constanze lies in bed. She sits up, startled.

Constanze, who looks ill and tired, stares at Leopold. Leopold stares back from the doorway.

He closes the door again.

He picks up some pages of manuscript.

Constanze comes into the room. She is wearing a dressing gown and has made a perfunctory attempt to tidy her hair. We see that she is clearly pregnant.

He gives a little giggle of embarrassment.

The jaunty tune of Ich Mochte Wohl Der Kaiser sein (K.539) sounds through all the following. This is an alternate song from Il Seraglio: a very extroverted tune for baritone and orchestra and a prominent part for bass drum. The vocal part should be arranged for trumpet.

Mozart and Constanze with Leopold between them. We see couples shopping.

This is a shop where one can buy costumes for masquerades. It is filled with extravagant costumes of various kinds. Wolfgang is wearing a costume, a mask pushed up on his forehead; Constanze is wearing a little white velvet mask.

Amidst the merriment, Leopold is helped by two assistants to put on a dark grey cloak and a dark grey tricorne hat, to which is attached a full mask of dark grey. Its mouth is cut into a fixed upward smile.

He turns and looks at his son through this mask.

We are in the full whirl of a Masquerade Ball. Couples are dancing around dressed in fantastic costumes.

The music of Ich Mochte Wohl Der Kaiser sein increases in volume and persists. We see the musicians thumping it out on a balustrade above the dancers. A steer is being roasted. Through the bobbing crowd we see a group, headed by the figure of Bacchus: this is Schikaneder in a Greek costume, wearing vine leaves in his hair. He is accompanied by his usual trio of actresses and three other men. Constanze as Columbine and Mozart as Harlequin are pulling Leopold by the hand of his dark cloak and smiling mask. This whole group threads its way across the crowded room and disappears through a door. As they go, they are watched by Salieri, standing alone in a corner, wearing ordinary evening clothes. He turns away hastily to avoid being seen by them.

As soon as they disappear into the far room, Salieri goes quickly to a lady in the corner who is giving guests domino masks off a tray. He quickly takes a small black mask and puts it on.

A fantastic room designed as a rocky grotto, lit by candles. A forte-piano to one side is being played by Schikaneder: the music of Ich Mochte Wohl Der Kaiser sein cross-fades to another tune. This is Vivat Bacchus from Il Seraglio which

Schikaneder, dressed as Bacchus, is humming as he plays. The music is actually accompanying a game of Forfeits, which has begun. Five couples (the group we have just seen) are dancing in the middle of a ring made by nine chairs. When the music stops they will each have to find a chair, and the one who fails must pay a forfeit.

Constanze is dancing with Leopold; Mozart is dancing with one of the actresses; the two other actresses are dancing with two other gentlemen; and two children dance together - a little boy and a little girl. The scene is watched by a circle of bystanders; among them - from the doorway - is Salieri.

Schikaneder stops playing. Immediately the couples scramble for the chairs. Leopold and Constanze meet on the same chair, bumping and pushing at each other to get sole possession of it. To the amusement of the people around, the chair over- balances and they both end up on the floor. Constanze immediately gets up again, sets the chair on its feet, and tries to pretend she was sitting in it all the time. But Schikaneder calls out from the forte-piano.

People are delighted by the idea of this penalty. The children jump up and down with excitement. The three actresses immediately surround Leopold, reaching for his hat and mask and wig, whilst he tries to hold on to them. Mozart takes off Constanze's wig - an absurd affair with side- curls. Constanze laughingly surrenders it.

Despite his protests an actress takes off his hat, to which the smiling mask is attached, to reveal his outraged face showing a very different expression underneath. Another actress snatches off his wig to reveal very sparse hair on the old man's head. The third actress takes Constanze's wig from Mozart and attempts to put it on his father's head.

Constanze echoes him with a touch of malice in her voice.

Laughingly, the bystanders take it up, especially the children.

As Leopold glares furiously about him, the actress succeeds in getting Constanze's wig firmly onto his head. Everybody bursts into applause. Delightedly, Constanze puts on Leopold's wig, hat and mask: from the waist up she now looks like a weird parody of Leopold in the smiling grey mask, and he looks like a weird parody of her in the silly feminine wig. Schikaneder starts to play again, and the couples start to dance. Leopold angrily takes off Constanze's wig and leaves the circle; his partner, Constanze, is left alone. Seeing this, Mozart leaves his partner and catches his father entreatingly by the arm.

He takes off his own wig and puts it on Leopold's uncovered head. The effect, if not as ridiculous, is still somewhat bizarre, since Wolfgang favours fairly elaborate wigs. He takes Constanze's wig from his father. As this happens, the music stops again. Mozart gently pushes his father down onto a nearby chair; the others scramble for the other chairs; and he is left as the Odd Man Out. He giggles. Schikaneder calls out to Leopold from the keyboard.

Applause.

All the bystanders are watching.

Mozart runs over to the forte-piano, and Schikaneder surrenders his place at it.

Applause.

Amused sounds of disbelief.

Renewed applause at this wicked extra penalty. Mozart smiles at Schikaneder - it is the sort of challenge he loves. He defiantly puts on Constanze's wig and seats himself with his back to the keyboard. Before the astonished eyes of the company he proceeds to execute this absurdly difficult task. His right hand plays the bass part, his left hand the treble, and with this added difficulty he improvises a brilliant fugue on the subject of the tune to which they have been dancing.

Attracted by this astonishing feat, the players draw nearer to the instrument. So does Salieri, cautiously, with some of the bystanders. Constanze watches him approach. Only Leopold sits by himself, sulking.

The fugue ends amidst terrific clapping. The guests call out to Mozart.

SMASH CUT: Salieri's masked face whips around and looks at her.

Giggling, he turns around and sits at the keyboard. Then, watched by a highly amused group, he begins a wicked parody.

He furrows his brow in mock concentration and closes his eyes.

Then he begins to play the tune to which they danced, in the most obvious way imaginable, relying heavily on a totally and offensively unimaginative bass of tonic and dominant, endlessly repeated. The music is the very essence of banality. The bystanders rock with laughter. Mozart starts to giggle wildly. Through this excruciating scene, Salieri stares at Constanze, who suddenly turns her head and looks challengingly back at him.

Mozart's parody reaches its coarse climax with him adding a fart noise instead of notes to end cadences. He builds this up, urged on in his clowning by everyone else, until suddenly he stops and cries out. The laughter cuts off. Mozart stands up, clutching his behind as if he has made a mess in his breeches. The momentary hush of alarm is followed by a howl of laughter.

CU, Salieri staring in pain.

CU, The old man is shaking at the very recollection of his humiliation.

A repetition of the shot of Mozart at the forte-piano, wearing Constanze's wig and emitting a shrill giggle.

Salieri sits at his desk. He holds in his hand the small black party mask and stares in hatred at the place on the wall where the crucifix used to hang. Faintly we see the mark of the cross.

It is littered with manuscripts. In the middle stands a billiard table. The beautiful closing ensemble from Act IV of Figaro: Ah, Tutti contenti! Saremo cosi plays in the background. Standing at the billiard table, Mozart is dreamily hearing the music and playing shots on the table.

From time to time he drifts over to a piece of manuscript paper and jots down notes. He is very much in his own world of composition and the billiard balls are an aid to creation. Presently, however, we hear a knocking at the door.

The music breaks off.

He opens the door.

Mozart comes out. Framed in the doorway from outside stands Lorl, the maid we noticed in Salieri's house. From his bedroom Leopold peeps out to watch. Mozart goes to the girl. Constanze follows.

Mozart turns to his father.

The old man emerges from his bedroom. His son looks at him delightedly.

Constanze looks furiously at him, then at Lorl.

Lorl goes outside and closes the door. Constanze turns on Leopold.

Explosively she opens the door.

She leads the maid into Leopold's room. Mozart steals back into his workroom and gently closes the door. Leopold is left alone.

Mozart stands trying to blot out the noise of his father's shouting from the next room.

The ensemble of Ah, Tutti contenti! Saremo cosi from Act IV of Figaro resumes, coming to his aid and rising to greet the listener with its serene harmonies. Relieved, Mozart languidly picks up his cue and plays a shot on the billiard table: he is sucked back into his own world of sound.

The music fades. We see Lorl, dressed in a walking cloak, sitting before a desk, talking to someone confidentially.

A hand comes into frame offering a plate of sugared biscuits. On its finger we see the gold signet ring belonging to Salieri.

Confused, the girl hesitates. He hands her a pile of coins.

She accepts them, delighted.

The final movement of Mozart's Piano Concerto in E-flat (K. begins. To its lively music, the door of the house bursts open and a grand forte-piano augmented with a pedal is carried out of it by six men, who run off with it down the street. Following them immediately appear Wolfgang, Constanze and Leopold, all three dressed for an occasion. They climb into a waiting carriage which drives off after the forte-piano.

As soon as it goes, Lorl appears in the doorway, peering slyly around to see that they are out of sight. Then she shuts the door and hurries off in the opposite direction.

An outdoor concert is being given. Mozart is actually playing the final movement of his E-flat concerto with an orchestra. Listening to him is a sizable audience, including the Emperor, flanked by Strack and Von Swieten.

The crowd is in a happy and appreciative mood: it is a delightful open-air scene. We hear the gayest and most complex passage. Leopold and Constanze listen to Mozart, who plays his own work brilliantly. We stay with this scene for a little while and then

A carriage clopping through the streets. Lorl is sitting up on the box beside the driver. Inside the vehicle, we glimpse the figure of Salieri.

We hear more of the concerto. Perhaps the slow interlude in the last movement of K. 482. Mozart is conducting and playing in a reflective mood. Abruptly we

Lorl is opening the door admitting Salieri. They go in. The door shuts.

The room is considerably tidier as a result of Lorl's ministrations. Salieri stands looking about him with tremendous curiosity.

She opens a drawer in a sideboard. Inside we see one gold snuff box: it is the one we saw Mozart being presented with as a child in the Vatican.

Salieri turns to look around him.

She points across the room to the workroom. Salieri crosses and goes in alone.

Salieri enters the private quarters of Amadeus. He is immensely excited. He moves slowly into the 'holy of holies' picking up objects with great reverence - a billiard ball; a discarded wig; a sock; a buckle - then objects more important to him. Standing at Mozart's desk, strewn with manuscripts, he picks up Mozart's pen and strokes the feather. He touches the inkstand. He lays a finger on the candlestick with its half-expired candle. He touches each object as if it were the memento of a beloved. He is in awe. Finally his eye falls on the sheets of music themselves. Stealthily he picks them up.

CU, The pages.

We see words set to music. Against each line of notes is the name of a character: Contessa, Susanna, Cherubino. Then another page - the title page - written in Mozart's hand.

Le Nozze di Figaro Comedia per musica tratta dal Francese in quattro atti.

CU, The word Figaro.

CU, Salieri. He stares amazed.

Mozart is playing the cadenza and coda of Piano Concerto (K. He completes the work with a flourish. There is loud applause. The Emperor rises and all follow suit. Mozart comes down to be greeted by him.

He sees his wife and father standing by in the crowd. Leopold is signaling insistently.

Leopold comes forward eagerly and fawningly kisses the royal hand.

Constanze curtsies.

He searches his memory.

All the courtiers around are looking at him.

The Director sits at his table with Salieri and Bonno.

He crosses himself, wide-eyed with alarm.

The Emperor stands in the middle of the room in close conversation with Von Strack, Orsini-Rosenberg, Von Swieten, and Bonno. Salieri is not present. A door opens and a lackey announces:

They all turn. Mozart approaches, rather apprehensively, and kisses Joseph's hand.

They all sit, save Mozart. The room suddenly looks like a tribunal. Joseph is in a serious mood.

The others look at their king solemnly, all save Mozart.

Beat. All look at the Emperor.

A slight pause. Then Joseph nods.

Mozart falls on his knees.

He giggles.

Mozart sits on stage at a harpsichord rehearsing the singers taking the parts of Figaro and Susanna in the opening bars of the first act of The Marriage of Figaro. We watch Figaro measuring the space for his bed on the floor, singing and Susanna looking on, trying on the Countess' hat.

Orsini-Rosenberg and Bonno are sitting with Salieri.

It is a full orchestral rehearsal. Mozart is conducting from the harpsichord with his hands; he does not use a baton. The singers are all in practice clothes, not costumes.

We are in the Act III and we hear the recitativo exchange just before the march begins. Orsini-Rosenberg and Bonno sit watching chairs.

Suddenly the march starts. Peasants and friends start to dance in and at the same moment, Orsini-Rosenberg gets up and comes down to Mozart. He is accompanied by an anxious Bonno.

He signals to the cast to break off.

The company disperses, curious. The musicians look at Orsini- Rosenberg.

Mozart hands him the score from which he is conducting.

He rips out a page. Bonno watches in terror.

He rips out three more.

He goes on tearing the pages determinedly.

A servant opens the door to announce.

Mozart brushes past him straight towards Salieri, who rises to greet him. The little man is near hysterics.

He grabs Salieri.

He kisses Salieri's hand.

Mozart giggles with relief and gratitude.

In the background the same recitativo before the March. The Emperor steals in surreptitiously with Von Strack, his finger to his lips. He motions everyone not to rise, and slips into a chair behind Salieri, Orsini-Rosenberg and Bonno.

The three conspirators look at each other wide-eyed.

The recitativo summons up the march, but instead there is silence. Mozart lays down his baton. The musicians lay down their instruments. The celebrants of Figaro's wedding come in with a few pitiful dance steps, in procession, only to come presently to a halt, lacking their music. The singers try to go on singing, but they have no cues from their conductor or from the accompaniment. Everyone on stage looks lost, though they attempt to go on with the story for a while. Consternation grows on the faces of the conspirators. Mozart glances back at the group seated in the theatre. Finally, the Emperor speaks, in a whisper.

Mozart strains to hear what they are saying but cannot.

We do look at them. The spectacle on stage has now ground to a complete halt.

Orsini-Rosenberg acknowledges his defeat.

Orsini-Rosenberg rises and goes down to where Mozart sits anxiously with the musicians, watching his approach.

He looks back deliriously at Salieri, trying to indicate his gratitude. Salieri acknowledges with a slight and subtle nod.

Orsini-Rosenberg returns to his king.

The singers scatter offstage to begin the scene again.

CUT BACK TO Mozart at the forte-piano, raising his hands. The musicians raise their bows. With a flourish the happy composer begins a reprise of the scene which had been cut out. The music of the march begins faintly; the celebrants of Figaro's wedding start to enter as the Count and the Countess sit in their chairs.

In the theatre we see increasing pleasure on the Emperor's face, sullenness and defeat on the courtiers'. Then, suddenly, without interruption, on a crescendo repeat of the march, we

The theatre is brilliantly lit for the first public performance of Figaro. Everybody is there: the Emperor, Von Strack, Bonno Orsini-Rosenberg, Von Swieten, even Madame Weber and her daughters in a box. The musicians all wear imperial livery; the actors on stage are now in costume. Mozart, conducting, wears his Order of the Golden Spur. The company wheels in and around to the music of the restored march, which reaches a triumphant climax.

The descending scale of strings in the final ensemble (Ah, Tutti contenti. Saremo cosi) fades in.

We see the tableau on stage with the Count kneeling to the Countess. All are singing.

CU, Salieri in his box, tears on his cheeks. He watches the ensemble and we listen to it for a long moment. Finally it fades, but continues underneath the following:

The ensemble reaches its climax, and fades away to the very quiet, slow chords immediately preceding the boisterous final chord. Salieri becomes aware that some of the audience are asleep and many mare are apathetic. In the near silence we see the Emperor yawn behind his hand. Those nearby look at him. Orsini-Rosenberg smiles.

Mozart is pacing up and down. Salieri is listening sympathetically.

He bows too, giggling.

A performance of Salieri's grand opera, Axur: King of Ormus. Deafening applause from a crowded house. We see the reception of the aria which we saw Cavalieri singing on the stage near the start of the film. Cavalieri, in a mythological Persian costume, is bowing to the rapturous throng; below her is Salieri. We see the Emperor, Von Strack, Orsini-Rosenberg, Bonno and Von Swieten, all applauding. We hear great cries of 'Salieri! Salieri!' and 'Bravo!' and 'Brava!'

CU, Salieri looking at the crowd with immense pleasure. Then suddenly at:

CU, Mozart standing in a box and clapping wildly. Behind him, seated, are Schikaneder and the three girls we saw before in Mozart's apartment.

CU, Salieri staring fixedly at Mozart, then Mozart still clapping, apparently with tremendous enthusiasm.

Salieri conducting the last scene from Axur: King of Ormus. On stage we see a big scene of acclamation: the hero and heroine of the opera accepting the crown amidst the rejoicing of the people. The decor and costumes are mythological Persian. The music is utterly conventional and totally uninventive.

CU, Mozart watching this in his box, with Schikaneder and the three actresses. He passes an open bottle of wine to them. He is evidently a little drunk, but keeps a poker face.

The act comes to an end. Great applause in which Mozart joins in, standing and shouting 'Bravo! Bravo!' Then he leaves the box with Schikaneder and the girls.

Schikaneder laughs.

A crowd of people rings Salieri at a respectful distance. The Emperor is holding out the Civilian Medal and Chain.

Salieri bows his head. Joseph places the chain around his neck. The crowd claps. Salieri makes to kiss his hand, but Joseph restrains him, and passes on. Cavalieri, smiling adoringly, gives him a deep curtsey, and he raises her up.

The crowd all flock to Salieri with cries and words of approval. All want to shake his hand. They tug and pat him. But he has eyes for only one man - he looks about him, searching for him and then finds him. Mozart stands there. Eagerly Salieri moves to him.

Salieri smiles.

Explosive laughter as Mozart and Schikaneder enter the apartment, very pleased with themselves and accompanied by the three actresses. The front door opens, very gingerly. Mozart, still rather drunk, sticks his head into the room, anxious not to make a noise. He sees the strangers and breaks into a smile.

He opens the door wide to admit Schikaneder and the girls.

The first loud chord of the Statue scene from Don Giovanni sounds. Mozart stares.

The second chord sounds. On stage we see the huge figure of the Commendatore in robes and helmet, extending his arms and pointing in accusation.

The second chord sounds.

On stage we see a huge nailed fist crash through the wall of a painted dining room set. The giant armoured statue of the COMMENDATORE enters pointing his finger in accusation at Don Giovanni who sits at the supper table, staring - his servant Leporello quaking with fear under the table.

The figure advances on the libertine. We see Mozart conducting, pale and deeply involved. Music fades down a little.

The music swells. We see Salieri standing alone in the back of a box, unseen, in semi-darkness. We also see that the theatre is only half full. Music fades down.

Music swells up again. We watch the scene on stage as the Commendatore addresses Giovanni. Then back to Salieri in the box. Music down again.

Music swells. On stage Don Giovanni is seized and gripped by the Statue's icy hand. Flames burst from obviously artificial rocks. Demons appear and drag the libertine down to Hell. The scene ends.

CU, Salieri, staring wide-eyed.

We see huge and attractive posters and billboards advertising Schikaneder's troupe. The camera concentrates on the one which reads as follows:

132 SCHIKANEDER TROUPE OF PLAYERS 132

IN An Evening of

133 ALL SONGS AND SPEECHES WRITTEN 133

134 BY 134

Noise; smoke; the audience is sitting at tables for an evening of vaudeville. Mozart, Constanze and their son Karl, now about two years old, and sitting on his mother's lap, are watching a parody scene by Schikaneder's troupe. They are rowdy, bawdy and silly, incorporating motifs, situations and tunes from Mozart's operas which we have seen and heard. Before them on the table are bottles of wine and beer, plates of sausages, etc.

Schikaneder as Don Giovanni is dancing with the three actresses to the minuet from Don Giovanni (end of Act I), played by a quartet of tipsy musicians. Leporello is handing around wine on a tray.

Suddenly there is a tremendous knocking from outside. The music slithers to a stop. All look at each other in panic. Leporello drops his tray with a crash. All go quiet. One more knock is heard. Then all musicians, actresses, Don Giovanni and Leporello make a dash to hide under the table which is far too small to accommodate them all. The table rocks. Schikaneder is pushed out. He is terrified. He shakes elaborately. Three more knocks are heard; louder.

One more knock.

In the pit a chromatic scale from the Overture to Don Giovanni turns into a anticipatory vamp. This grows more and more menacing until the whole flat representing the wall at the back falls down.

An absurd pantomime horse gallops in. It has a ridiculous expression, and is manned by four men inside. Standing precariously on its back is a dwarf, wearing a miniature version of the armour and helmet worn by the Commendatore. He sings in a high, nasal voice:

He tries to keep his balance as he trots in, but fails. He falls off onto the stage. He beats at the horse, trying to get back on.

Bewildered, the horse looks about him, but cannot see his small rider who is below his level of sight.

The horse, amidst laughter from the audience, fails to locate him. Exasperated, the dwarf signals to someone in the wings. A tall man strides out carrying a see-saw; on his shoulders stands another man.

The dwarf stands on the lowered end of the see-saw. There is a drum roll and the man above jumps down onto the raised end and the Commendatore is abruptly catapulted back onto the horse, only backwards so that he is facing away from Don Giovanni. The two men bow to the applauding audience, and retire off-stage.

The Commendatore tries to extend his arms in the proper menacing attitude, and at the same time turn around to face Don Giovanni. This he finds difficult.

The horse takes a bow. The dwarf almost falls off again.

The three girls rush to his aid and reach him just in time. They sing in the manner of the Tree Ladies later to be put into The Magic Flute.

They grab him.

He gives the ladies a radiant smile. The three ladies sing, as before, in close harmony.

An orchestral chord. The three ladies turn to Ottavio and sing to him.

Ottavio neighs loudly, and runs at the girls.

Boos from the audience.

A trapeze sails in from above. On it stands a grand soprano wearing an elaborate Turkish costume, like a parody of Cavalieri's in Il Seraglio. She comes in singing a mad coloratura scale in the manner of Martern aller Arten.

He marches off stage.

The Commendatore pulls out his sword, reaches up and thrusts her through with it. The soprano collapses on the bar of the trapeze. The audience applauds. At the same moment eight dwarves march in bearing a huge cauldron of steaming water. They sing as they march to the sound of the march that was cut from Act III of Figaro. They are dressed as miniature copies of the chorus in that scene except that they are wearing cooks' hats.

They set the giant pot down in the middle of the stage. The trapeze with the dead soprano is still swinging above the stage.

We hear the chromatic scale from the Don Giovanni overture again, repeated and repeated, only now fast and tremolando. To this exciting vamp Schikaneder suddenly rides in on a real horse, waving a real sword. With this he cuts the string of the trapeze, and the soprano falls into the pot. A tremendous splash of water. Schikaneder rides out. More applause.

All the dwarves produce long wooden cooking spoons and climb up the sides of the pot. The three girls produce labeled bottles from under their skirts. The first is SALT.

136 PEPPER 136

She sneezes.

137 AND SCHNAPPS 137

She hiccups.

They throw them into the pot.

Schikaneder marches in as Figaro.

CU, Mozart laughing delightedly with the audience.

All the dwarves climb up the rim of the pot. As they climb, they all hum together the opening of Eine Kleine Nachtmusik.

The soprano rises, dripping with water in the middle of the pot.

All the dwarves beat her back down into the pot with their long wooden spoons.

The table is raised in the air by Leporello sitting under it on a bale of hay.

Ottavio the horse gives a piercing neigh and runs down to the hay.

The vamp starts again vigorously. The horse's rear-end swings around on a hinge to turn his hind-quarters straight on to the audience. The rest of him stays sideways. His tail springs up in the air to reveal a lace handkerchief modestly hiding his arsehole.

Schikaneder offers him a handful of hay. The horse eats it, and out the other end comes a long Viennese sausage. The audience roars with laughter. Another handful of hay and out of the other end falls a string of sausages. Then a large pie, crust and all. Then a shower of iced cakes!

Suddenly - silence. Schikaneder produces an egg from his pocket. Ottavio the horse rears up in disgust.

Leporello pries open the horse's mouth. Schikaneder pops the egg into it. A breathless pause as a drum roll builds the tension, up and up and up, and then suddenly out of the horse's rear-end flies a single white dove.

Wild applause.

It flies into the audience. Immediately all the cast start humming the lyrical finale from Figaro: Tutti Contenti. More and more doves fly out from the wings and fill the theatre. Everybody picks up the sausages and cakes and begins to eat. The end of the sketch is unexpectedly lyrical and magical, and then, suddenly, the tempo changes and the coarse strains of Ich Mochte wohl Der Kaiser take over and the whole company is dancing, frantically. A general dance as the curtain falls.

It rises immediately. The audience - including Mozart - is delighted. They applaud vigorously. Schikaneder takes a bow amongst his troupe. Among much whistling and clapping, he finally jumps off the stage and strides through the audience toward the table where Mozart sits with his family. On stage, a troupe of bag pipers immediately appears to play an old German tune. Some of the audience joins in singing it.

Mozart is smiling; he has been amused. Constanze has been less amused and is looking apprehensive.

Schikaneder sits at the table, and drinks from a bottle of wine.

Mozart laughs.

He rises in haste for his next number.

He winks at Mozart and disappears toward the stage. Mozart looks after him, enchanted.

He giggles like a child.

Dogs are barking wickedly. Michael Schlumberg comes in from his salon. Mozart stands there looking very unwell and bewildered. He is also drunk, but making a careful attempt to keep his composure.

Pause.

CU, Mozart. His voice becomes mechanical.

Von Swieten and Salieri stand close together. Several scholars and students are examining scrolls and manuscripts at the other end of the room.

The opening measures of the Piano Concerto in D Minor steal in.

This is exactly the same shop which Mozart and Constanze visited with Leopold. Now Salieri's servant stands in it, waiting. We see a few other customers being served by the staff: renting masks, costumes, etc. One of the staff emerges from the back of the shop carrying a large box, which he hands to Salieri's servant. The servant leaves the shop. Through the window we see him hurrying away through the snowy street full of passers-by, carriages, etc.

The D Minor Concerto continues. Salieri, alone, eagerly opens the box from the costume shop and takes out the same dark cloak and hat that Leopold wore to the masquerade, only now attached to the hat is a dark mask whose mouth is cut into a frown, not a laugh. It presents a bitter and menacing expression. He puts on the cloak, the hat and the mask and turns his back.

Suddenly we see the assembled and alarming image reflected in a full-length mirror. The music swells darkly.

As the tutti of the D Minor Concerto continues, we see Salieri, dressed in this menacing costume, dark against the snow, stalking through a street which is otherwise lively with people going to various festivities. Some of them wear frivolous carnival clothes.

Mozart sits writing at a table. He appears now to be really quite sick. His face expresses pain from his stomach cramps. There is a gentle knock at the door. He rises, goes to he door and opens it. Immediately there is a SHOCK CUT:

The dark, frowning mask stares at him and at us. The violent D Minor chord which opens Don Giovanni is heard. Salieri in costume stands in the doorway.

The second chord sounds and fades. Mozart stares in panic.

Salieri extends his hand. In it is a bag of money.

Almost against his will, Mozart takes the money.

He turns away. Mozart closes the front door. Instantly we hear the opening of the Requiem Mass (also in D Minor). Mozart turns and looks up at the portrait of his father on the wall. The portrait stares back. Constanze opens the door from the bedroom. She sees him staring up.

He looks at her with startled eyes. The music breaks off.

He gives a strange little giggle.

She sees the bag of money.

He stares at her. She stares at him.

Old Salieri is now wildly animated, totally driven by his confession to Vogler.

Vogler stares at him in horror.

He raises his own hands and stares at them. The raging Dies Irae from Mozart's Requiem Mass bursts upon us.

Mozart sits working frantically at this demonic music. His whole expression is one of wildness and engulfing fever. He pours wine down his throat, spilling it, and grimaces as it hits his stomach. All around him are manuscripts.

There is a banging at the front door. Mozart does not hear it; the music raves on. Another knocking comes, louder. Constanze appears from the bedroom and stares at her distracted husband. The knocking is repeated again, even more violently and insistently.

He looks at her. The music breaks off. Silence. An enormous bang at the door startles him.

Constanze moves to open it.

Mozart springs up. He is clearly terrified.

He runs out of he room, into his workroom, and shuts he door. Now a little scared herself, Constanze goes to he front door and opens it cautiously. Schikaneder stands there, floridly dressed as usual. Lorl is seen peeking out from the kitchen.

He pushes her into the room.

He sees he manuscript on the table, and goes to it eagerly.

He picks up a page without waiting for a reply.

Mozart opens he workroom door. We see him as Schikaneder sees him: wild-eyed, extremely pale and strange.

He giggles triumphantly. Schikaneder stares at him.

Mozart, with a bright, rather demented smile presents his head to Schikaneder.

He giggles. Schikaneder suddenly grabs his lapels.

Schikaneder suddenly takes Mozart by the arms, and speaks to him with intense appeal.

A frightened and tearful Lorl sits before Salieri.

The Overture to The Magic Flute begins grandly. To the music of the slow introduction, we see:

The room, lit by a few candles, appears dirty. The camera shows us again Leopold's portrait on the wall, looking down upon a scene of disorder.

Papers litter the table; dirty dishes are piled in the fireplace; on the forte-piano lies Mozart's Masonic apron, woven with symbols. To the more lyrical passage of the introduction, we see Mozart take up a candle and enter:

We watch him stand beside Constanze, who lies asleep. Mozart now looks very ill; his wife appears worn out. Tenderly he touches her hair. Then he moves to the cot where his son Karl lies asleep and kneels, pulls up the child's little blanket and for a moment lays his own head down beside the boy's. Constanze opens her eyes and stares at him. Mozart rises and returns to:

The Introduction ends and suddenly the brilliant fast fugue begins. Instantly Mozart starts to dance to it, all alone: gleefully, like a child. He looks up at his father's portrait, and makes a silly, rude gesture at it. He is, briefly, an irresponsible and happy boy again.

Then suddenly there is a gentle knocking at the door. The music fades down. Warily, Mozart crosses and opens he door. The familiar dark chords from Don Giovanni cut across the happy music. It ends. Before him stands the masked stranger.

He turns and looks. Constanze has come into the living room. Nervously, Mozart indicates her.

150 I? 150

Salieri contemplates them both.

He turns and goes down the stairs. Mozart shuts the door; he closes his eyes in fear.

He will not look at her or reply.

He looks at her suddenly.

Suddenly she starts to cry.

Her tears flow. Mozart looks at her helplessly.

She sits down tearfully, staring at him.

We hear the Rex Tremendai Majestatis from the Requiem and see on the wall the portrait of Leopold Mozart looking down. The camera pans slowly downward from it back to the table. Mozart is writing the music. He looks up and sees that Constanze is fast asleep in her chair. Mozart gets up quietly. He puts on his hat and cloak, takes a bottle of wine and tiptoes from the house. Without stopping, the music changes from the heavy Requiem to the light-hearted patter of the Papa-Papa duet from The Magic Flute.

This little wooden structure stands in a courtyard in the tenement by the Weiden. Inside, we see a table, chairs, a forte-piano, bottles and a chaos of papers. Strewn about in the chairs are the three actresses, giggling. Schikaneder and Mozart, both drunk, are singing the duet of the two bird- people. The actor sings Papageno and the composer, in a soprano voice, sings Papagena at the keyboard. Absurdly, they end up rubbing noses and fall on each other's necks.

Mozart, drunk and happy, staggers back through the snow. There are a few people about. He goes into his apartment building.

He comes through he door and stares across the living room at an open bedroom door. Puzzled, he crosses.

The bedroom is also empty. We see Constanze's empty bed; Karl's empty bed; empty closets.

He looks about him, puzzled.

Frau Weber sits grimly talking. Mozart sits also, completely exhausted and passive under the rain of her constant speech.

And with a scream Madame Weber's voice turns into the shrill packing coloratura of the second act aria of the Queen of the Night, in The Magic Flute.

On stage we see the QUEEN OF THE NIGHT fantastically costumed, furiously urging her daughter to kill Sarastro. As she sings, we see the interior of the theatre, now re- arranged from when we last visited it to watch the Cabaret. An audience of ordinary German citizens stands in the pit area, or sits: they are rapt and excited.

The theatre also possesses boxes; some of these show closed curtains - their inhabitants presumably engaged in private intimacies. In one of them sits Salieri.

Thunder and lightning. She disappears amidst tremendous applause from the audience.

On the poster for The Magic Flute, the name Emmanuel Schikaneder should appear very, very large and the name of Mozart quite small:

I. & R. priv. Weiden Theatre The Actors of the Imperial and Royal Privileged Theatre of the Weiden Have the honour to perform

Emmanuel Schikaneder (The Cast List)

The music is by Herr Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Herr Mozart out of respect for a gracious and honourable Public, and from friendship for the author of this piece, will today direct the orchestra in person.

The book of the opera, furnished with two copperplates, of which is engraved Herr Schikaneder in the costume he wears for the role of Papageno, may be had at the box office for kr.

Prices of admission are as usual To begin at 7 o'clock

158 NIGHT -1790'S 158

We CUT TO the scene immediately before Papageno's song, Ein Madchen oder Weibchen. Papageno, played by Schikaneder, dressed in his costume of feathers, is trying to get through a mysterious door. A voice calls from within.

VOICE Go back!

Papageno recoils.

VOICE Go back!

Papageno recoils.

He weeps extravagantly.

In the pit, Mozart indicates to the first violinist to take over as conductor. He slips from his place and goes stealthily backstage. We follow him. Over the scene we hear Papageno being addressed by the First Priest in stern tones.

Laughter. An enormous goblet of wine appears out of the earth.

We follow Mozart into the wings. Actors and actresses stand around in fantastic costumes. We see a flying chariot and parts of a huge snake lying about. Also the scenery door of a temple with the word 'Wisdom' inscribed on the pediment. Mozart walks to where there stands a keyboard glockenspiel with several manuals, and a musician waiting to play it. Silently Mozart indicates that he wishes to play the instrument himself.

On stage Schikaneder is being addressed haughtily by the First Priest.

Laughter from the audience.

He stares at the audience and winks at them. They laugh.

Now Papageno's aria (Ein Madchen oder Weibchen) begins. It is interpolated, as he pretends to play his magic bells, with the glockenspiel actually being played off-stage by Mozart. Schikaneder looks into the pit and does not see Mozart conducting. He looks into the wings and realizes the situation with amusement. He sings joyfully and the audience watches entranced.

At certain moments we see the stage from Salieri's point of view: Schikaneder singing, then pretending to play; and then we see Mozart playing the glockenspiel with great flourishes in the wings. Then, suddenly, the actor mimes playing, and no sound comes. He mimes again, but still nothing comes. He looks offstage in anxiety; there is evidently some commotion. People are looking down on the floor. The song comes to a near-halt. Schikaneder stares.

Then the comedian signals to the deputy conductor to pick up the song and finish it. At this moment Salieri gets up and hastily leaves his box.

We see the actress playing Papagena, wearing an old tattered cloak and about to tie a little painted cloth representing a hideous old woman over her face. She is looking worriedly down at Mozart, who is lying unconscious on the floor.

A few people around him are trying to revive him. One has put a wet handkerchief around his temples. Another is holding a small bottle of smelling salts. There are voices saying, 'Doctor! Take him to a dressing room. Someone call a carriage. Take him home.' Etc. Papagena is urged to go on stage by a distracted stage manager. Suddenly we hear the voice of Salieri.

He steps forward.

The actors step back respectfully. He stoops and picks up the frail composer in his arms. Mozart is quite limp and Salieri has to fling his arms around his own neck. All this is watched nervously by Schikaneder on stage whilst performing his scene with Papagena as an ugly old woman.

Audience laughter. The actress raises the little painted cloth with the ugly old face on it to show her own pretty young one to the audience. More laughter.

Laughter.

Laughter.

A waiting sedan chair. Mozart has recovered consciousness, but looks exceedingly ill. Salieri has set him down in the winter's night. Snow is falling.

He starts to collapse again. Salieri helps him into the sedan. The door is shut.

The chair sets off and Salieri strides beside it, through the mean street. A lantern with a candle swings from the chair.

The door opens. Salieri enters carrying the lantern from the sedan chair. He is followed by Mozart, carried in the arms of one of the porters. The room is now really in complete disarray. The table is piled high with music: the pages of the Requiem lie amongst many empty wine bottles. The porter carries Mozart into

This room is miserably neglected. The bed is unmade, clothes lie about on the floor. A sock has been stuck into the broken pane of one window.

The porter lays Mozart down on the bed as Salieri lights candles from the lantern to reveal plates of half-eaten food and other signs left by a man whose wife has departed. It is obviously very cold. Another very small bed nearby belongs to the child, Karl.

The porter leaves the room. Mozart stirs.

He opens his eyes and sees Salieri staring down at him. He smiles.

He helps him to sit up and takes off his coat and his shoes and puts a coverlet around him.

He struggles to loosen his cravat. Salieri does it for him.

There is a violent knocking at the front door. Mozart starts and looks around wildly.

The knocking increases in loudness, terrifying Mozart.

Salieri moves to the door.

Salieri leaves the room.

Salieri goes to the front door and opens it to reveal Schikaneder, who has obviously come straight from the theatre. He still wears his bird make-up and under his street cloak, his feathered costume is clearly seen. He has with him the three actresses, also looking anxious and also in make-up as the three attendants in The Magic Flute.

Schikaneder produces a bag of money.

They bob and curtsey. Schikaneder stares at Salieri, uneasily, vaguely suspicious. Salieri smiles back at him and shuts the door. He stays for a moment, thinking. He contemplates the money.

Mozart is sitting up in bed, staring at the door. It opens. Salieri returns. He holds in his hand the bag of money.

Salieri pours the coins out of the bag onto the coverlet.

Mozart looks at the coins astonished.

Trivial dance music is playing. Constanze is doing a waltz with a young OFFICER in military uniform. At the moment we see her, she stops abruptly, as if in panic.

Mozart is sitting up in bed, propped against pillows. The coins lie on the coverlet; many candles burn in the necks of bottles. Salieri, without coat or wig, is seated at an improvised worktable. On it are blank sheets of music paper, quills, and ink. Also the score of the Requiem Mass as so far composed. Mozart is bright-eyed with a kind of fever. Salieri is also possessed with an obviously feverish desire to put down the notes as quickly as Mozart can dictate them.

He takes his pen.

Salieri writes the key signature.

Salieri writes this, and continues now to write as swiftly and urgently as he can, at Mozart's dictation. He is obviously highly expert at doing this and hardly hesitates. His speed, however, can never be too fast for Mozart's impatient mind.

167 A. 167

(singing the note) Con-fu-ta-tis. (speaking) Second measure, second beat. (singing) Ma-le-dic-tis. (speaking) G-sharp, of course.

Salieri sings back the first six measures of the bass line. After the first two measures a chorus of basses fades in on the soundtrack and engulfs his voice. They stop.

His voice is lost on the last words, as tenors engulf it and take over the soundtrack, singing their whole line from the beginning, right to the end of the sixth measure where the basses stopped, but he goes on mouthing the sounds with them. Salieri writes feverishly. We see his pen jotting down the notes as quickly as possible: the ink flicks onto the page. The music stops again.

Mozart glares at him, irritated. His hands move impatiently. Salieri scribbles frantically.

He again hums the bass vocal line from the beginning, conducting. On the soundtrack, we hear the second bassoon and bass trombone play it with him and the first bassoon and tenor trombone come in on top, playing the tenor vocal line. We also hear the trumpets and timpani. The sound is bare and grim. It stops at the end of the sixth measure. Salieri stops writing.

He sings the urgent first measure of the ostinato.

He sings the second measure of the ostinato.

Salieri sings the first two measures of the string ostinato.

As Salieri writes, Mozart sings the ostinato from the beginning, but the unaccompanied strings overwhelm his voice on the soundtrack, playing the first six bars of their agitated accompaniment. They stop.

He is now sitting bolt upright, hushed and inspired.

He writes feverishly.

He sings the violin figure under the Voca Me (Bars 7,8,9).

He sings the ostinato phrase twice.

The entire Confutatis bursts over the room, as Mozart snatches the manuscript pages from Salieri and reads from it, singing. Salieri sits looking on in wondering astonishment. The music continues right through the following scenes, to the end of the movement.

A carriage is driving fast through the night. Snow lies on the countryside.

The carriage is filled with passengers. Among them Constanze and Karl, her young son. They are sleepless and sway to the motion of the vehicle.

Mozart lying in bed exhausted, but still dictating urgently. We do not hear what he is saying to Salieri, who still sits writing assiduously. Mozart is looking very sick: sweat is pouring from his forehead.

The carriage, moving through the night, to the sound of the music.

Mozart still dictating; Salieri still writing without stop.

The carriage has arrived. Constanze and her son alight with other passengers. Postillions attend to the horses. She takes her boy's hand. It is a cold wintry dawn.

The music stutters to a close. End of the Confutatis.

Mozart closes his eyes. Salieri stares at him.

Constanze and Karl approach along the cobbled street, hand in hand toward their house. Snow lies in the street.

Mozart lies asleep in the bed, holding the last pages of the manuscript. Salieri lies across from him on Karl's small bed in his shirt sleeves and waistcoat. The child's bed is obviously too small for him and he is forced in to a cramped position.

Constanze and Karl arrive at the door. They enter.

It is as disordered as before, save that the table, previously littered with pages, is now completely bare. Constanze looks at it with surprise and enters the bedroom.

Mozart is asleep in the bed. Salieri is dozing on the nearby child's bed. The room is full of the trailing smoke from guttering and guttered candles. Startled by Constanze's entrance and her young son, Salieri scrambles up. As he does so, he attempts to button his waistcoat, but does it ineptly, so that the vestment becomes bunched up, making him look absurd.

She notices a movement from the bed. Mozart wakes. He sees Constanze and smiles with real joy. Forgetting Salieri, she goes to her husband.

She throws herself on the bed.

She hugs her husband desperately. He stares at her with obvious relief, not able to speak. Suddenly she sees the manuscript in his hand.

She looks at it and recognizes it.

She takes it from his weak hand. At the same moment Salieri reaches out his hand to take it and add it to the pile on the table.

She stares at him, trying to understand - suspicious and frightened and at the same time unable to make a sound. Mozart makes a convulsive gesture to reclaim the pages. The coins brought by Salieri fall on the floor. Karl runs after them, laughing.

She extends her hand for the Requiem, as she stands up. Salieri hesitates.

With extreme reluctance - it costs him agony to do it - Salieri hands over the score of the Requiem to her.

She marches with the manuscript over to a large chest in the room, opens it, throws the manuscript inside, shuts the lid, locks it and pockets the key. Involuntarily Salieri stretches out his arms for the lost manuscript.

She turns and faces him.

He stares at her, stunned.

They look at each other in mutual hatred. She turns to the bed. Mozart appears to have gone to sleep again.

She moves to the bed. The child is playing with the coins on the floor. Faintly we hear the start of the Lacrimosa from the Requiem. Salieri watches as she touches her husband's hand. As the music grows, we realize that Mozart is dead.

CU, Constanze staring wide-eyed in dawning apprehension.

CU, Salieri also comprehending hat he has been cheated.

The music rises.

CU, The child on the floor, playing with the money.

The Lacrimosa continues through all of the following: a small group of people emerges from the side door into the raw, wet day, accompanying a cheap wooden coffin. The coffin is borne by a gravedigger and Schikaneder in mourning clothes. They load it onto a cart, drawn by a poor black horse. All the rest are in black, also: Salieri, Von Swieten, Constanze and her son, Karl, Madame Weber and her youngest daughter Sophie, and even Lorl, the maid. It is drizzling. The cart sets off. The group follows.

The group has already passed beyond the city limits following the miserable cart. The Lacrimosa accompanies them with its measured thread.

The drizzle of rain has now become heavy. One by one, the group breaks up and shelters under the trees. The cart moves on toward the cemetery, alone, followed by nobody, growing more and more distant. They watch it go.

Salieri and Von Swieten shake hands mournfully, the water soaking their black tall hats. Schikaneder is in tears. Constanze is near collapse. Salieri moves to assist her, but she turns away from him, seeking the arm of Cavalieri. Madame Weber takes Karl's hand.

The music builds to its climax on Dona Eis Pacem! We CUT back to:

Morning light fills the room. Old Salieri sits weeping convulsively, as the music stops. Tears stream down his face. Vogler watches him, amazed.

The rain has eased off. A LOCAL PRIEST with two boy acolytes is standing beside an open communal grave. Mozart's body is lifted out of the cheap pine box in a sack.

We see that the grave contains twenty other such sacks. The gravedigger throws the one containing Mozart amongst the others. An assistant pours quicklime over the whole pile of them. The acolytes swing their censers.

He tears off the Civilian Medal and Chain with which the Emperor invested him and has been wearing the whole time and throws it across the room.

The door opens. An attendant comes in, cheerful and hearty.

Salieri ignores him and stares only at the priest, who stares back.

He signs to the attendant, who wheels him in his chair out of the room. The priest stares after him.

The corridor is filled with patients in white linen smocks, all taking their morning exercise walk in the care of nurses and nuns. They form a long, wretched, strange procession - some of them are clearly very disturbed. As Old Salieri is pushed through them in his wheelchair, he lifts his hands to them in benediction.

Finally, he turns full-face to the camera and blesses us the audience, making the Sign of the Cross. Underneath we hear, stealing in and growing louder, the tremendous Masonic Funeral Music of Mozart.

On the last four chords, we

FADE OUT: