Synopsis

"In old age, Salieri recalls his successful career as Court Composer, his hatred of Mozart, and how he conceived the brilliant young composer's demise. With an obnoxious personality totally incongruous with his musical genius, Mozart died neglected and impoverished while the mediocre Salieri lived in a blaze of fame and praise. Salieri's ironic fate was to be the only man at court to realize that "... from the ordinary he created legends - and I from legends created only the ordinary". Now approaching his own death, Salieri has nothing but the awareness of his hollow achievements. The play is set in Vienna in November 1823 and, in recall, the decade 1781-91."