Historical figures in tragedy. Divine gift and traditions

Full version 15 minutes (≈9 A4 pages), summary 4 minutes.

Main characters

Mozart, Salieri, Old man with violin

Salieri was sitting in his own room. He complained about the unfairness of life. He recalled his childhood and said that he was born with a love of art. As a child, he cried at the sound of the church organ. He gave up games and amusements early and enthusiastically began studying music. He despised everything that was alien to music. Overcame the difficulties of starting school and the first adversity. He perfectly studied the musical craft. Then he decided to get creative. Salieri did not think about fame. He often destroyed his own works, believing that they were not brought to perfection. However, even while comprehending music, he abandoned all his own knowledge when Gluck discovered new secrets of art. Then he was able to achieve great heights in art, fame turned his face to him. People responded to his music. Salieri enjoyed his own fame. He didn't envy anyone. On the contrary, he was pleased with the successes of his friends. He believed that no one could call him envious. Now Salieri realized that he was very jealous of Mozart. The resentment was even stronger because fate turned out to be unfair. She gave the gift of music not to a man who had worked hard for many years, but to a simple reveler. She awarded the gift not for her selfless love of music. The gift illuminated the head of a simple madman. Salieri could not understand this. He desperately said Mozart's name. And then Mozart appeared. Mozart thought that Salieri called his name because he saw him coming. And Mozart wanted to appear unexpectedly to make fun of Salieri. Heading towards Salieri, he heard a violin and noticed a violinist who was blind and playing the famous melody. Mozart thought it was interesting. He took the violinist with him and asked him to perform something from Mozart. The violinist played Don Juan's aria very out of tune. Mozart laughed, but Salieri was serious and reproached Mozart. He couldn't understand how Mozart could laugh. After all, it seemed to him like a mockery of art. Salieri drove the old man away. Mozart gave the old man money and asked him to drink to his health.

Mozart thought that Salieri was not in the mood today. He planned to visit him next time. However, Salieri asked him what he had brought. Mozart made excuses and considered his own new work a trifle. He created the creation at night, when he was tormented by insomnia. Therefore, he did not want to distract Salieri with this, especially when he was out of sorts. However, Salieri asked him to fulfill his creation. Mozart tried to tell how he felt while writing and played it. Salieri was perplexed how Mozart, heading towards him with such a thing, could linger at the tavern and become carried away by a street musician. He stated that Mozart was not worth himself, that his creation was harmonious, bold and deep. He called Mozart a god who does not know his own divinity. Mozart was embarrassed by these words and laughed it off. Having said that his deity is hungry. Salieri offered him a joint lunch at a tavern. Mozart happily agreed. But first I wanted to warn my wife not to wait for him for lunch.

Salieri was left alone. He said that he no longer had the strength to resist fate. Chosen him as her own weapon. He believed that his calling was to stop Mozart, who through his own actions did not raise art, which would fall again after his disappearance. Salieri believed that Mozart, alive, posed a threat to art. Salieri took out the poison that Izora, his beloved, bequeathed to him. The poison was kept by him for eighteen years. He never used it, although many times life became unbearable for him. He never used it to kill others. He always managed to overcome temptation. Now he believed it was time to use it. The gift of love will go into the cup of friendship.

Mozart and Salieri were sitting in a separate room of the tavern, where there was a piano. Salieri thought Mozart was upset. He admitted that his anxiety was caused by the Requiem, which he had been composing for three weeks. Some mysterious stranger ordered this item for him. Mozart constantly thought about this man. It seemed to him that he followed him everywhere and this moment was in this room.

Salieri tried to calm him down. he said that these were just childhood fears. He remembered his own friend Beaumarchais. He gave him advice to cope with bad thoughts using a bottle of champagne or reading The Marriage of Figaro. Mozart asked Salieri if Beaumarchais really poisoned someone. He replied that his friend was very funny for this. Mozart objected to him and said that Beaumarchais was a genius, just like him and Salieri. And he considered villainy and genius to be incompatible things. Mozart was convinced that his companion agreed with him. And at that moment Salieri threw poison into his glass. Mozart proposed a toast. Salieri tried to stop him, but was too late. Mozart drained his glass. Mozart decided to perform the Requiem for his companion. Salieri listened to music and cried. However, this was not repentance. And the feeling of accomplishment. Mozart felt bad and left the tavern. Salieri was left alone and thought about Mozart's words about villainy and genius. To justify himself, he remembered the legend of Bonnarotti, who sacrificed human life for the sake of art. However, the thought suddenly struck him that this was only an invention of the crowd.

Composer Salieri sits in his room. He complains about the injustice of fate. Recalling his childhood years, he says that he was born with a love of high art, that, as a child, he cried involuntary and sweet tears at the sounds of a church organ. Having early rejected children's games and amusements, he selflessly devoted himself to the study of music. Disdaining everything that was alien to her, he overcame the difficulties of his first steps and early adversities. He mastered the craft of a musician to perfection, “to the fingers/Betrayed obedient, dry fluency/And fidelity to the ear.” Having killed the sounds, he dismantled the music, “trusted harmony with algebra.” Only then did he decide to create, to indulge in a creative dream, without thinking about fame. He often destroyed the fruits of many days of labor, born in tears of inspiration, finding them imperfect. But having comprehended music, he abandoned all his knowledge when the great Gluck discovered new secrets of art. And finally, when he achieved in limitless art high degree, glory smiled on him, he found a response to his consonances in the hearts of people. And Salieri peacefully enjoyed his fame, not envying anyone and not knowing this feeling at all. On the contrary, he enjoyed “the labors and successes of his friends.” Salieri believes that no one had the right to call him “a despicable envious person.” Nowadays, Salieri’s soul is oppressed by the consciousness that he envies, painfully, deeply, Mozart. But more bitter than envy is the resentment at the injustice of fate, which gives the sacred gift not to the ascetic as a reward for long and painstaking labors, but to the “idle reveler,” harder than envy is the consciousness that this gift was not given as a reward for selfless love to art, but “illuminates the head of a madman.” Salieri cannot understand this. In desperation, he pronounces the name of Mozart, and at that moment Mozart himself appears, to whom it seems that Salieri said his name because he noticed his approach, and he wanted to appear suddenly to treat Salieri with an “unexpected joke.” Walking to Salieri, Mozart heard the sounds of a violin in the tavern and saw a blind violinist playing a famous melody; this seemed interesting to Mozart. He brought this violinist with him and asks him to play something from Mozart. Ruthlessly out of tune, the violinist plays an aria from Don Juan. Mozart laughs merrily, but Salieri is serious and even reproaches Mozart. He doesn’t understand how Mozart can laugh at what seems to him a reproach. high art Salieri drives the old man away, and Mozart gives him money and asks him to drink to his, Mozart’s, health.

It seems to Mozart that Salieri is out of sorts today and is going to come to him another time, but Salieri asks Mozart what he brought him. Mozart makes an excuse, considering his new composition a trifle. He sketched it at night during insomnia, and it is not worth bothering Salieri with it when he had Bad mood. But Salieri asks Mozart to play this piece. Mozart tries to retell what he felt when he composed and plays. Salieri is at a loss how Mozart could, going to him with this, stop at a tavern and listen to a street musician. He says that Mozart is unworthy of himself, that his work is extraordinary in depth, courage and harmony. He calls Mozart a god who is unaware of his divinity. Embarrassed, Mozart jokes that his deity is hungry. Salieri invites Mozart to dine together at the Golden Lion tavern. Mozart happily agrees, but wants to go home and warn his wife not to expect him for dinner.

Left alone, Salieri says that he is no longer able to resist fate, which has chosen him as its instrument. He believes that he is called upon to stop Mozart, who by his behavior does not raise art, that it will fall again as soon as he disappears. Salieri believes that living Mozart is a threat to art. Mozart in the eyes of Salieri is like a heavenly cherub who flew into the world below in order to arouse wingless desire in people, children of the dust, and therefore it would be wiser if Mozart flies away again, and the sooner the better. Salieri takes out the poison bequeathed to him by his beloved, Izora, a poison that he kept for eighteen years and never resorted to its help, although more than once life seemed unbearable to him. He never used it to deal with an enemy, always prevailing over temptation. Now, Salieri believes, it’s time to use the poison, and the gift of love must go into the cup of friendship.

In a separate room of the tavern, where there is a piano, Salieri and Mozart are sitting. Salieri thinks that Mozart is gloomy, that he is upset about something. Mozart admits that he is worried about the Requiem, which he has been composing for three weeks now on the order of some mysterious stranger. Mozart is haunted by the thought of this man who was in black, it seems to him that he follows him everywhere and even now sits in this room.

Salieri tries to reassure Mozart, saying that all these are childish fears. He remembers his friend Beaumarchais, who advised him to get rid of black thoughts with a bottle of champagne or reading The Marriage of Figaro. Mozart, knowing that Beaumarchais was a friend of Salieri, asks if it is true that he poisoned someone. Salieri replies that Beaumarchais was too funny “for such a craft,” and Mozart, objecting to him, says that Beaumarchais was a genius, like him and Salieri, “and genius and villainy are two incompatible things.” Mozart is convinced that Salieri shares his thoughts. And at that moment Salieri throws poison into Mozart's glass. Mozart raises a toast to the sons of harmony and to the union that binds them. Salieri tries to stop Mozart, but it is too late, he has already drunk the wine. Now Mozart intends to play his Requiem for Salieri. Listening to music, Salieri cries, but these are not tears of repentance, these are tears from the consciousness of duty performed. Mozart feels unwell and leaves the inn. Salieri, left alone, reflects on Mozart’s words about the incompatibility of genius and villainy; As an argument in his favor, he recalls the legend that Bonarotti sacrificed human life to art. But suddenly he is struck by the thought that this is just an invention of a “stupid, senseless crowd.”

Option 2

The composer Salieri sits alone in the room. He scolds fate for treating him so unfairly. Remembering his childhood, he says that he cried involuntarily at the sound of the melody organ music. Instead of children's games, he comprehended the study of sound fine music, overcoming the first difficulties and early adversities. Then he mastered the craft of a musician, where his hands obediently conveyed the melody of the music that he felt. There were days when he tore into shreds the fruits of many days of labor, finding them empty. Glory smiled at him when he found a response in the hearts of people to his consonances. Salieri enjoyed the successes and labors of his friends so much that no one had the right to call him envious, and even despicable.

In his heart, Salieri envies Mozart that fate, which gives a sacred gift, gives to an idle reveler, thereby illuminating the head of a madman. Salieri asks Mozart to play the piece he brought, and then says that his composition is extraordinary in depth and courage. Calls Mozart a God who does not know about his divinity. Mozart in Salieri's eyes is like a Cherub who flew into an unknown world to arouse desire in people, but it would be better if Mozart flies away. Salieri takes out the poison bequeathed to him by Izora, which he never used. Although life more than once seemed unbearable to him. Now the moment has come when the gift of love must pass into the cup of friendship.

In one of the rooms of the tavern, where there is a piano, there are Salieri and Mozart. Mozart says that he is worried about a work that he composed a long time ago and at the request of a stranger who follows him everywhere. Salieri calms and advises Mozart to get rid of thoughts by reading “The Marriage of Figaro.” Mozart knows that Bormasche was a friend of Salieri, and was a genius, like Mozart and Salieri, and genius and villainy are two incompatible things. Unnoticed, Salieri throws poison into Mozart's glass. Mozart raises a toast to the sons of harmony and their union.

Mozart plays for Salieri, and he listens to the music and cries, but these are not tears of repentance, but tears of duty fulfilled. Mozart feels unwell and leaves the inn.

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“Mozart and Salieri” is the second of the four “Little Tragedies” by A. S. Pushkin. (The other three are “The Miserly Knight”, “The Stone Guest”, “A Feast during the Plague”.) On our website you can also read an analysis of this drama.

Pushkin “Mozart and Salieri”, scene 1 – summary

Composer Salieri reflects in his room about his life. (See Salieri's Monologue.) He recalls how in his youth he began to study music, putting in the first place not talent, but hard work. Art was akin to him craft. Dry, devoid of inspiration, Salieri learned harmony as a science, “verified it with algebra.” “Having killed the sounds,” he “disintegrated the music like a corpse.” Only after many years of persistent efforts, Salieri “reached a high degree in boundless art” and gained fans and fame. But he was soon eclipsed by the young Mozart, a carefree reveler who achieved more without any effort - thanks to his incomparable genius. A painful envy of Mozart’s talent arose in Salieri’s soul, although he became his friend.

A cheerful Mozart just enters Salieri's room, leading a blind violinist with him. He met this street musician at a tavern, where he, desperately out of tune, tried to play an aria from his opera. Mozart asks the blind man to repeat it in front of Salieri, and laughs heartily as he performs it. But the serious and prim Salieri bad game The violinist is not amused, but outraged. He “doesn’t find it funny when a worthless painter stains Raphael’s Madonna.”

The blind man leaves, having received money for drinks from Mozart. Mozart sits down at the piano and plays his new play. Salieri admires her courage and harmony. Envy flares up in him even more relentlessly.

Salieri invites Mozart to dine together at a tavern. Consumed by bilious melancholy, he decides to poison Mozart, who has overshadowed all other musicians. Salieri has long carried poison with him, his wife’s dying gift. Today this cherished gift of love must go into the cup of friendship.

Mozart and Salieri. Illustration by M. Vrubel for the tragedy of A. S. Pushkin, 1884

Pushkin “Mozart and Salieri”, scene 2 – summary

Mozart and Salieri have lunch at a tavern. Mozart sadly talks about a recent strange incident. A certain man dressed in black man and ordered the composition of a funeral hymn - a requiem. Mozart eagerly set to work. The Requiem turned out great. But the black man never returned to pick up the order. Mozart is now tormented by a premonition that it was fate that announced his imminent death and ordered him to compose a requiem for himself.

Salieri insincerely reassures his friend and advises him to re-read Beaumarchais' funny play about Figaro for fun. Mozart absentmindedly wonders: is it true that Beaumarchais poisoned someone? However, he himself does not believe this, believing: Beaumarchais is a genius, and “genius and villainy are two incompatible things.”

Scene 1

Room.

Salieri talks about creativity and his calling:

Overcame
I am early adversity. Craft
I set it at the foot of art;
I became a craftsman: fingers

Gave obedient, dry fluency
And loyalty to the ear. Killing the sounds
I tore apart the music like a corpse. Believed
I algebra harmony. Then
Already dared, experienced in science,
Indulge in the bliss of a creative dream...

Strong, tense constancy

I'm finally in limitless art

Reached a high level. Glory
She smiled at me; I'm in people's hearts

I found harmonies with my creations...

Who can say that Salieri was proud?

Someday a despicable envier,

A snake, trampled by people, alive

Sand and dust gnawing helplessly?
Nobody! And now - I’ll say it myself - I’m now

Envious. I envy; deep,
I'm painfully jealous. Oh heaven!
Where is rightness, when a sacred gift,
When immortal genius- not as a reward
Burning love, selflessness,
Works, zeal, prayers sent -
And it illuminates the head of a madman,
Idle revelers?
O Mozart, Mozart!

Mozart enters the room. He says that, while passing by a tavern, he heard a blind old violinist playing Mozart. He brought the old man with him and asked him to play something from Mozart. He plays, terribly distorting the melody. Mozart laughs. Salieri is perplexed and indignant:

I don't find it funny when the painter is worthless

Raphael's Madonna gets dirty for me!

The violinist leaves. Mozart says that he composed a “trifle” and plays it on the piano. Salieri is amazed:

You came to me with this
And he could stop at the inn
And listen to the blind violinist! - God!
You, Mozart, are unworthy of yourself.

Salieri invites Mozart to dine at the Golden Lion inn. Mozart agrees and leaves. Salieri decides to poison Mozart:

I was chosen to
Stop it, otherwise we will all die

We are all priests, ministers of music,
I'm not alone with my dull glory...
What good is it if Mozart lives?
Will it still reach new heights?
Will he elevate art? No;
It will fall again as he disappears:
He will not leave us an heir.
What's the use of it? Like some cherub,

He brought us several heavenly songs,
So that, outraged by wingless desire
In us, the children of the dust, will fly away!
So fly away! the sooner the better...

Scene 2

Tavern.

Mozart and Salieri are sitting at the table, Mozart is sad, he says that he is worried about the “Requiem” that he is writing. He tells the story of how “Requiem” was commissioned: a man in black came to him three times, and then, having ordered the work, he disappeared and does not appear, although the order was completed. Mozart says that he sees this black man everywhere, and it seems that he is sitting third at their table. Salieri tries to calm Mozart, recalls Beaumarchais, who advised him:

Listen, brother Salieri,
If dark thoughts come to you,
Open a bottle of champagne
Or re-read The Marriage of Figaro.

Mozart recalls a rumor that Beaumarchais poisoned someone and says that he doesn’t believe it, because he

He's a genius
Like you and me. And genius and villainy -
Two things are incompatible...

Salieri throws poison into Mozart's glass. Mozart drinks, goes to the piano, plays "Requiem". Salieri is crying.

These tears
I’m pouring for the first time: it’s both painful and pleasant,
As if I had committed a heavy duty,
It’s like a healing knife is cutting me off

Suffering member!...

Mozart feels bad and leaves. Salieri is left alone:

You'll fall asleep
Long live, Mozart! but is he right?
And I'm not a genius? Genius and villainy -
Are two things incompatible? Not true:

And Bonarotti? or is it a fairy tale
Dumb, senseless crowd - and was not
The creator of the Vatican was a murderer?

(according to legend, Michelangelo killed the sitters who posed for his sculptures so that there would be no resemblance to his work in the world).

Prefaced by a brief summary of the play “Mozart and Salieri” (A.S. Pushkin), it should be said that it is quite small, and there are only two characters in it - the composers Mozart and Salieri.

The essence of the conflict

The basis of the play's conflict is Salieri's internal conflict, which can be reduced to understanding the essence of creativity in general. For him, music is work, craft and constant self-improvement. In other words, overcoming. For Mozart, composing music is inspiration and joy. He creates easily and freely.

Thus, in the summary of “Mozart and Salieri” by Pushkin, we note that main question plays to which there is no answer and over which Salieri is tormented: why are some unconditionally endowed with genius, while others are forced to prove their place among their fellow workers through tireless hard work?

He believes that the sky is unfair, illuminating the “madman’s head” and the “idle reveler.” After all, Mozart is unworthy of his great gift, he wastes his life without working, so he must die. Salieri sees his task as killing Mozart. This is a great task, he thinks.

And if a dramatic resolution of the conflict in Pushkin (Salieri kills Mozart in the finale of the play) does occur, it cannot lead to an answer to the main question - and essentially the ending remains open.

In presenting the summary of Pushkin’s “Mozart and Salieri,” we talked about the main conflict of the play.

About the characters of the play

Prototypes of characters in the play - real personalities, but bringing them together, especially with such an ending, most likely occurs only thanks to the will of the author.

In the summary of Pushkin’s “Mozart and Salieri,” it is necessary to clarify that Antonio Salieri in his time ( late XVIII - early XIX century) was considered a famous and recognized musician. This Italian composer, follower of Gluck, author of many vocal and vocal-musical works, court conductor. He was a teacher, instilling the basics of mastery in such famous composers as Schubert, Liszt, Beethoven.

But, one might say, fate played with him cruel joke- and with light hand Pushkin, he remained in history as the “killer of Mozart”. This “stigma” stuck to him so much that much later, in Milan, in 1997, there was even a trial that completely acquitted the musician and confirmed his innocence in the death of Mozart.

In addition to Mozart, there is a third character in the play, whose presence can be called symbolic, “offscreen”. This is a man dressed in black, or, as Mozart calls him, “my black man” - a stranger who came to order a requiem for him, and did not show up for the order. He became a kind of messenger of death, a messenger of otherworldly forces - as if Mozart wrote the Requiem for himself. This gloomy image is very common in world literature: Pushkin picked it up from Goethe (“Faust”), and later Leonid Andreev and Sergei Yesenin borrowed it for their works.

Scene one

In the summary of Pushkin’s play “Mozart and Salieri”, we note that at the beginning of the first scene, Salieri sits in his room and reflects on the hardships of his own life, filled with study, work and well-deserved fame, and how great his envy of Mozart is. Mozart himself comes to visit him and brings a street musician, a blind old man, a “violinist,” whom he had just met in a tavern. He played Cherubino’s aria from Mozart’s opera “The Marriage of Figaro” on the violin and played so badly that the author became amused.

When the old man begins to play again, Mozart laughs, and Salieri becomes indignant and drives the violinist away.

Then Mozart plays the “trifle” on the piano, which he composed during the previous sleepless night. His listener is already in admiration and says that Mozart is “god” and he is “unworthy of himself.” Mozart treats these manifestations of delight with obvious irony; he jokingly replies that “my god is hungry,” and Salieri immediately invites him to dine at the tavern.

Mozart leaves to warn his wife, and the one who remains explains his task to himself and the audience: “I have been chosen to stop him,” otherwise we will die. Kill divine Mozart, according to Salieri, it is also necessary so that “wingless children of dust” like him can create. And he is preparing poison.

This concludes the brief summary of the first scene of Pushkin’s tragedy “Mozart and Salieri”.

Scene two

Mozart tells how the “black man” came to him, how he ordered the Requiem and never appeared again. The interlocutor tries to encourage him, saying that to have fun, on the advice of Beaumarchais, it is necessary to re-read “The Marriage of Figaro” and drink a glass of champagne. “Is it true,” Mozart asks, “that someone was poisoned by Beaumarchais?” Salieri denies this, and Mozart adds that, of course, “he was a genius, like you and me,” and it is known that “genius and villainy are two incompatible things.”

Salieri pours poison into the interlocutor's cup, and he drinks the wine. Then Mozart, sitting down at the piano, plays his new composition - Requiem. His listener is touched: he feels “both painful and pleased,” as if he had done hard but necessary work.

Mozart feels unwell and goes home. And Salieri is left to reflect on the question tormenting him. He recalls the legend “about Bonarotti” (in the summary of Pushkin’s tragedy “Mozart and Salieri” it is necessary to note what is meant here famous story, in which the great Italian painter and sculptor Michelangelo Buonarroti poisoned the sitter in order to more accurately convey the agony of the dying Christ).

Can an artist who has committed a crime in the name of art be a genius? Or is this story a lie, a tale of the crowd?

With this question from the musician to himself (or the viewer), the play is over.

We have given a brief summary of Pushkin's play "Mozart and Salieri".