Scene 2

INT. THE ARCHBISHOP OF SALZBURG'S RESIDENCE - VIENNA - DAY - 1780'S

Music sounds slowly in the background. Servants enter.
We see Salieri, age thirty-one, a neat, carefully turned-cut man in decent black clothes and clean white linen

SALIERI
The place throughout is Vienna.
The year - to begin with - 1781
The age still that of enlightenment. That clear time before the guillotine fell in France and cut all our lives in half. I am a prolific composer to the Habsburg court.

The two Venticelli come on quickly downstage from either side.

V1
Sir

V2
Sir

V1 and V2
Sir… Sir..

V1
Mozart

V2
Mozart

V1 and V2
Mozart has come

SALIERI
These are my Venticelli. My little winds as I called them.
The secret of living in a large city is always to know to the minute
what is being done behind your back.

V1
He’s left Salzsburg.

V2
Asking for subscribers

V1
They say he wrote his first symphony at seven.

V2
His first concert at four

V1
A full opera at fourteen

SALIERI
How old is he now?

V2
Twenty six

SALIERI
And how long is he remaining

V1
He is not departing

V2
He’s here to stay

The Venticelli glide off.

SALIERI
His first concerto at the age of four; his first symphony at seven;
A full scale opera at twelve, did it show?
Is talent like that written on the face?
Which one of them could he be?

Two servants bring on a large table loaded with cakes and desserts.

SALIERI
To audience

First a little refreshment .My generous hostess always put out the most delicious confections in that room. He takes a little bowl of it from the cake- stand and sits in the wing chair. Cream cheese mixed with granulated sugar and stuffed with rum

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. We hear her giggling as he talks.

MOZART
Miaouw! Miaouw! Mouse-wouse?

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

CONSTANZE
Stop it. Stop it!

They roll on the floor. He tickles her.

CONSTANZE
Stop it!

MOZART
I am! I am! I'm stopping it - slowly.
You see! Look, I've stopped. Now we are going back.

He tries to drag her back under the table.

CONSTANZE
No! No! No!

MOZART
Yes! Back! Back! Listen - don't you
know where you are?

CONSTANZE
Where?

MOZART
We are in the Residence of the Fartsbishop of Salzburg.

CONSTANZE
Fartsbishop

She laughs delightedly, and then addresses an imaginary dignitary.

CONSTANZE
Your Grace, I've got something to tell you.
I want to complain about this man.

MOZART
Go ahead, tell him. Tell them all.
They won't understand you anyway.

CONSTANZE
Why not?

MOZART
Because here everything goes backwards. People walk backwards, dance backwards, sing backwards, and talk backwards.

CONSTANZE
That's stupid.

He gives a high pitched giggle.

CONSTANZE
Oh, ha, ha, ha.

MOZART
Em iram! Em iram!
Say it backwards!

CONSTANZE
No, I'm not playing this game.

MOZART
No, this is serious. Say it backwards.

CONSTANZE
No!

MOZART
Just say it - you'll see. It's very serious.
Em iram! Em iram!

CONSTANZE
Iram - marry Em - marry me! No, no!
You're a fiend. I'm not going to
marry a fiend. A dirty fiend at that.

MOZART
Ui-vol-i-tub!

CONSTANZE
Tub - but i-tub - but I vol - love
but I love ui - You. I love you!

The mood becomes suddenly softer. She kisses him. They embrace.
At the same moment the music starts in the salon next door.

MOZART
My music! They've started!
They've started without me!

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


OLD SALIERI (V.O)

So that was he! That giggling, dirty-minded creature
I'd just seen crawling on the floor. Mozart.
The phenomenon whose legend had haunted my youth,
This man had written his first concerto at the age of four; his first
symphony at seven; a full-scale opera at twelve.
Impossible