Amadeus

Amadeus Summary | Act 1, Part 1 Summary

As the play begins, whispers fill the theatre. At first, individual words can't be made out, but after a few moments, two words stand out: "Salieri" and "assassin." As a chorus of nineteenth century "Citizens of Vienna" fill the stage (giving the impression of people gossiping), we become able to see an old man, sitting in a wheelchair with his back to us.

Two men hurry on. The men are the Venticelli (an Italian word meaning "little winds"), characters who both narrate, and participate in the action. Speaking loudly enough to be heard over the whispers, they discuss the subject of the gossip: the old and reclusive composer Salieri, who is thought to be dying and who apparently cries out at night that he killed Mozart, the famous composer. The Venticelli identify Salieri's two servants as the source of the rumor, and ask them repeatedly to confirm it and add more details. The Venticelli become more insistent, the whispers become louder, the servants say nothing, and just when both the whispers and the Venticelli's curiosity are at their most intense, Salieri (the old man in the wheelchair) suddenly shouts out Mozart's name!

Everything is silent for a moment, but then the whispering begins again, the Venticelli continue to gossip, and Salieri speaks in Italian, asking for mercy. The Venticelli mention that there had been rumors when Mozart died that he had been poisoned, wonder if it's possible that those rumors are true, and whether it's even believable that Salieri was behind it. When Salieri cries out again, asking for pardon for his sins from Mozart, the noise climaxes in the loudly whispered name of Salieri. The "Citizens of Vienna" leave, the Venticelli quickly follow, and Salieri is left alone.

Salieri wheels his chair around and addresses the audience in Italian, introducing himself and placing himself "at [our] service." Switching to English, he addresses us as "Ghosts of the Future" and his "Confessors." The man invites us to keep him company through this last night of his life. Salieri sits at a piano and plays an Invocation in order to make the "ghosts" appear. Lights come up and make us (the "ghosts") visible to him.

Salieri continues to address us, explaining that he was taught the art of Invocation (among other things) by the composer Gluck, "who was a true Master." Then he goes to a display of sweets, and tells us that the first sin he must confess to is the sin of Gluttony (loving food and drink too much). As he munches on some of the sweets, he tells us about the sweets he remembers from his childhood, which leads him to reminisce about the town where he grew up: the "tiny town of Legnago" in Italy "which [he] could not wait to leave." Salieri tells us his idea of how the people of Legnago viewed God: "all they asked …of God was to keep them forever unnoticed - preserved in mediocrity," and that that from the time he was a child he knew he was different: he knew he wanted more than to be noticed, he wanted fame. Salieri also knew that he wanted it through music, which he describes as "God's art." In vivid, poetic language he describes how ecstatic music makes him feel, and how he promised that if God made him a famous composer, he would be virtuous, chaste, work to improve the lives of his fellow men, and worship God through music. The man recounts how he heard God speak to him and agree to the bargain, and how the next day "a family friend suddenly appeared … took [him] off to Vienna and paid for [him] to study music." Then he tells how he rose quickly to power in the court of the Emperor of Austria, and that at the same time, an immensely talented child musician named Mozart was touring Europe. Salieri then smiles at us and announces "for one performance only - [his] last composition, entitled The Death of Mozart, or Did [he] Do It?" Then he transforms into the younger Salieri, and the set transforms into the Viennese Court.