Amadeus by Peter Shaffer, II.

iv

[MOZART. (desperate) Excuse the language, Baron, but really! How can we go on forever
with these gods and heroes?

VAN SWIETEN. (passionately) Because they go on forever thats why! They represent the
eternal in us. Opera is here to ennoble us, Mozart you and me just as well as the Emperor.
It is an aggrandizing art! It celebrates the eternal in man and ignores the ephemeral. The
goddess in woman and not the laundress.

STRACK. Well said, sir. Exactly!

MOZART. (imitating his drawl) Oh, well said, yes, well said! Exactly!]

MOZART
(to all of them)
I dont understand you! Youre all up on perches, but it doesnt hide your arseholes! You dont give
a shit about gods and heroes! If you are honest each one of you which of you isnt more at
home with his hairdresser than Hercules? Or Horatius?

(to Salieri)
Or your stupid Danaius, come to that! Or mine mine! Idomeneo, King of Crete! All those anguished
antiques! Theyre all bores! Bores, bores, bores!

(Suddenly he springs up and jumps onto a chair, like an orator. Declaring it)
All serious operas written in this century are boring!

(They turn and look at him in shocked amazement. A pause. He gives his little giggle,
and then jumps down again.)
Look at us! Four gaping mouths. What a perfect quartet! Id love to write it just this second of
time, this now, as you are! Herr Chamberlain thinking: Impertinent Mozart. I must speak to the
Emperor at once! Herr Prefect thinking: Ignorant Mozart. Debasing opera with his vulgarity!
Herr Court Composer thinking: German Mozart. What can he finally know about music? And
Mozart himself, in the middle, thinking: Im just a good fellow. Why do they all disapprove of
me?

(excitedly to VAN SWIETEN)

Thats why opera is important, Baron. Because its realer than any play!