(He goes to the piano.)

And now, Salieri, listen:

My Requiem.

(He plays.)

You weep?

Salieri

Such tears as these

I shed for the first time. It hurts, yet soothes,

As if I had fulfilled a heavy duty,

As if at last the healing knife had chopped

A suffering member off. These tears, o Mozart!..

Pay no respect to them; continue, hurry

To fill my soul with those celestial sounds...

Mozart

If only all so quickly felt the power

Of harmony! But no, in that event

The world could not exist; all would abandon

The basic needs of ordinary life

And give themselves to unencumbered art.

We're few, the fortune's chosen, happy idlers,

Despising the repellent cares of use,

True votaries of one and only beauty.

Is that not right? But now I'm feeling sick

And kind of heavy. I should go and sleep.

Farewell then!

Salieri

See you later.

(Alone.)

You will sleep

For long, Mozart! But what if he is right?

I am no genius? "Genius and evildoing

Are incompatibles." That is not true:

And Buonarotti?.. Or is it a legend