Tom Hulce: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Amadeus

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Forgive me, Majesty. I am a vulgar man! But I assure you, my music is not.
Emperor Joseph II: You are passionate, Mozart, but you do not persuade...

Emperor Joseph II: My dear young man, don't take it too hard. Your work is ingenious. It's quality work. And there are simply too many notes, that's all. Just cut a few and it will be perfect.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Which few did you have in mind, Majesty?

Constanze Mozart: Wolfie, I think you really are going mad. You work like a slave for that idiot actor who won't give you a penny. And here, this is not a ghost! This is a real man who puts down real money. Why on earth won't you finish it? Can you give me one reason I can understand?
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: It's killing me.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: "Confutatis maledictis" - when the wicked are confounded. "Flammis acribus dictis." How would you translate that?
Antonio Salieri: Consigned to flames of woe.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Do you believe in it?
Antonio Salieri: What?
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: A fire which never dies, burning you forever?
Antonio Salieri: Oh yes.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Why must I submit samples of my work to some stupid committee just to teach a thirteen-year-old girl?
Count Von Strack: Because His Majesty wishes it.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Is the emperor angry with me?
Count Von Strack: Quite the contrary.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Then why doesn't he simply appoint me to the post?
Count Von Strack: Mozart, you are not the *only* composer in Vienna.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: No, but I'm the best!

[addressing the complaints about the "improper" libretto for "Figaro"]
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Come on now, be honest! Which one of you wouldn't rather listen to his hairdresser than Hercules? Or Horatius, or Orpheus... people so lofty they sound as if they shit marble!

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: [to Emperor Joseph II] Sire, only opera can do this. In a play if more than one person speaks at the same time, it's just noise, no one can understand a word. But with opera, with music... with music you can have twenty individuals all talking at the same time, and it's not noise, it's a perfect harmony!

[the Emperor offers the sheet music of Salieri's welcome march to Mozart]
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Keep it Majesty, if you want. It's already here in my head.
Emperor Joseph II: What? On one hearing only?
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: I think so, Sire, yes.
Emperor Joseph II: Show us.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: [about the royal composer's position he did not get] Whom did they choose?
Antonio Salieri: Herr Zummer.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Herr Zummer? But the man's a fool, he's a total mediocrity!
Antonio Salieri: No, no, he has yet to achieve mediocrity.

Emanuel Schikaneder: Look, I asked you if we could start rehearsals next week and you said yes.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Well, we can.
Emanuel Schikaneder: So let me see it. Where is it?
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Here. It's all right here in my noodle. The rest is just scribbling. Scribbling and bibbling, bibbling and scribbling.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: [of his great opera "Figaro"] Nine performances! Nine, that's all it's had! And withdrawn!
Antonio Salieri: I know, I know, it's outrageous. Still, if the public doesn't like one's work, one has to accept the fact gracefully.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: But what is it that they don't like?
Antonio Salieri: I can speak for the Emperor. You make too many demands on the royal ear. The poor man can't concentrate for more than an hour... you gave him four.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: What did you think of it yourself? Did you like it at all?
Antonio Salieri: I thought it was marvelous.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Of course! It's the best opera yet written, I know it... why didn't they come?
Antonio Salieri: I think you overestimate our dear Viennese, my friend. You know you didn't even give them a good *bang* at the end of songs, to let them know when to clap?
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: I know, I know... maybe you should give me some lessons in that.

Antonio Salieri: Mozart, it was good of you to come!
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: How could I not?
Antonio Salieri: How... Did my work please you?
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: [hesitantly] I never knew that music like that was possible!
Antonio Salieri: [uncertainly] You flatter me.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: [insincerely] No, no! One hears such sounds, and what can one say but... Salieri!

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: The whole thing is set in a harem, Majesty. In a seraglio.
Count Orsini-Rosenberg: You mean in Turkey?
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Yes, exactly.
Count Orsini-Rosenberg: Then why especially does it have to be in German?
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: It doesn't, especially. It could be in Turkish if you really want.

Constanze Mozart: [to Mozart's father] May I offer you some tea, Herr Mozart?
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Tea? Who wants tea? Let's go out! This calls for a feast. You don't want tea, do you, Papa?
Constanze Mozart: Wolfie...
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: I know, let's go dancing! Papa loves parties, don't you?
Constanze Mozart: Wolfie!
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: What? How can you be so boring? Tea...

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: I am fed to the teeth with elevated themes! Old dead legends! Why must we go on forever writing about gods and legends?
Baron Van Swieten: Because they do. They go on forever. Or at least what they represent. The eternal in us. Opera is here to ennoble us. You and me, just the same as His Majesty.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: [suddenly realizing] My music... they started without me!

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: I actually threw the score on the fire, he made me so angry.
Antonio Salieri: You burned the score?
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: No, no. My wife took it out in time.

[Mozart loses at musical chairs]
Emanuel Schikaneder: Herr Mozart, why don't you name your son's penalty?
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Yes, Papa. Name it. Name it, I'll do anything you say. Anything.
Leopold Mozart: I want you to come back to Salzburg with me, my son.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Papa, the rule is you can only give a penalty that can be performed in the room.
Leopold Mozart: I'm tired of this game, I don't want to play anymore.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: But my penalty!
[jumping up and down like an angry child]
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: I've got to have a penalty!

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: It's unbelievable, the director has actually torn up a huge section of my music. They say I have to rewrite the opera. But it's perfect as it is! I can't rewrite what's perfect!