PUSHKIN'S MOZART AND SALIERI: MODERN CONNOTATIONS
Introduction FINAL/8 November 2020
Good Evening, ladies and gentlemen. Our subject tonight is Pushkin’s 'Little Tragedy', 'Mozart and Salieri' and its modern connotations.
In 2007, the Pushkin scholar, Irina Surat, made the following comment about ‘Mozart and Salieri’: “... we, readers of different times - all, as one - are involved in this plot and, thanks to this phenomenon, its meaning gradually reveals itself over time." Not only 'Mozart and Salieri', but Pushkin's other works and his life itself, constantly remind us how relevant he continues to be in all of Russia's trials and tribulations.
I think the Pushkin Club showed how true this is with the three events we held over the summer and autumn: our celebration of Pushkin’s 'Boldino Autumn' and the incredible amount of poetry he was inspired to write during his quarantine isolation in Boldino in 1830; 'Pushkin against the Plague'; and 'Pushkin on People Confronting Statues and vice versa'.
There is a very popular expression in Russia: Русский мир – the Russian World. It means the Russian-speaking community inside and outside Russia. The Russian World of today has ever more reason to recall certain works of Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin.
Before coming on to Mozart and Salieri, I'd like first to mention two of Pushkin's other works and their modern connotations.
On 16 September, the journalist, Alexander Minkin, published an article in which he recalled the high school axiom 'classical literature is always relevant' - which, to his surprise, he found applied just as much in modern times. He referred in this connection to Pushkin’s famous poem, Анчар // 'The Upas Tree' (1828). This is known to all Russians from their school-days. Russian schoolchildren used to be taught that the poem was an allegory of Russia in the wake of the Decembrists' Uprising of 1825 and was an expression of Pushkin's protest against autocracy.
However, now Minkin read this poem in a completely new light.
In the poem, Pushkin describes how the all-powerful Tsar dispatches a hapless, obedient slave to collect a supply of deadly [poisonous] gum from an upas tree, which can then be used to poison the Tsar’s enemies in foreign lands.
We will now READ Анчар // 'The Upas Tree' in the joint translation by Antony Wood and Peter France, and then in the original.
You may now be interested to hear the following commentary provided by Alexander Minkin :
'Through its bark the poison trickles' – this description points to the poison being of organic origin: As some of you may know, military-grade poisons of recent vintage are all phosphoro-organic compositions.
'Once a man's all-powerful glance / Dispatched a man to find the tree' – it means that the ruler with all-powerful glance gave no written order to his slave – so that there would be no proof that this secret operation had ever been carried out;
Pushkin described the symptoms of the slave’s poisoning with clinical precision: sudden weakness and fatigue, a pallid countenance and a heavy, cold sweat;
The poison acted through the skin of the slave – he was not given any means of personal protection;
‘And there he died, the wretched slave / Before the mighty potentate.’ – The ruler displays his inhumanity. There’s no question of an antidote being given to the faithful slave. Indeed, it’s expedient that the slave does not survive. He knew too much, and it’s better there are no witnesses to the secret operation.
'With that gum the ruler tipped / His arrows; and at his command / They dealt out death and devastation / To men in every neighbouring land.' - The 'arrows' here are only a poetic symbol. In reality, they are agents of the State who seek out and poison the Tsar's enemies 'in every foreign land'.
With so much contemporary resonance, one wonders if Анчар will soon be withdrawn from the Russian school curriculum!
A few days after the article he wrote on 16 September, Alexander Minkin was to marvel again at Pushkin's extraordinary relevance to current events. Minkin simply quoted to his readers the final lines of Pushkin's epic play 'Boris Godunov':
...Tsar Boris Godunov has died. People gather outside his palace to greet their new Tsar – Boris's son, Feyodor. The highest officials in the country – the 'boyars' - enter Tsar's palace. The crowd waiting outside in Kremlin Square can hear noise and screaming from the palace. Then...
(The doors open. Boyar Mosalsky appears on the porch.)
MOSALSKY. People! Maria Godunova and her son Feyodor have killed themselves with poison [«отравили себя ядом»]. We have seen their dead bodies.
(The people are struck silent with horror.)
Alexander Minkin then comments to his readers: “Sounds familiar, doesn't it?”
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Now let's turn to our main subject – the 'Little Tragedy', “Mozart and Salieri”.
In 1824 an article appeared in the German music press. A few newspapers suggested that Antonio Salieri, a former Italian Kapellmeister at the Court of Vienna, had confessed on his death-bed to lethally poisoning Mozart out of envy for his genius.
Salieri died in 1825, so the news of his death in 1824 was false. His alleged ‘confession’ was also fake news: no evidence has ever been found to corroborate this allegation. However, the subject so interested Pushkin that he drafted a play which he initially entitled 'Envy'. But it was also the very idea of the poisoning of Mozart, and Salieri’s relationship with God, that gripped Pushkin at a deeper level.
Pushkin wrote Mozart and Salieri in 1830 during his first and most prolific Boldino Autumn. The work explores composer Antonio Salieri’s reputed envy of Mozart. This idea of envy has some factual basis. In a letter to his father, Mozart mentioned Salieri’s intrigues against him; in another letter, he described how Salieri prevented an aria of his from being included in a concert. Other documents suggest that relationship between two composers was sometimes friendly and sometimes strained, and that - at different times - Salieri both hindered and helped Mozart.
Salieri's own words - as reported by his fellow musician, Niemetschek, show that he was not displeased at Mozart's death: 'It is indeed a pity to lose so great a genius, but his death is a good thing for us. If he had lived [any] longer, not a soul would have given us a bit of bread for our compositions.' It seemed that the community of musicians in Austria and the Imperial Court of Vienna were of the same opinion.
By order of Van Swieten, a patron of music, the director of the Hofbibliothek and himself an amateur musician, Mozart was accorded the poorest class of funeral – burial in a common grave. His hearse went to the grave unaccompanied. 'Thus’ - the newspaper Allgemeine Grube reported – ‘without a note of music, forsaken by all he held dear, the remains of this prince of harmony were committed to the earth, not even in a grave of his own, but in the common paupers' grave'. The site of the actual grave was soon forgotten; and only in 1853 did the city of Vienna erect on the probable spot a handsome monument, which was solemnly unveiled.
However, the rumour of Salieri's deathbed 'confession' in 1825 turned out to be a complete fabrication.
But be that as it may, let us now consider Pushkin's 'Little Tragedy' – as a superb psychological study of the destructive power of envy and as a wonderful work of art which brings historical characters to life and explores eternal problems.
As with all his works, Pushkin's play - which is very short (just two scenes) – can be appreciated on many levels. For this evening’s performance, I'm going to mention just three subjects or themes at the heart of the play. They all concern Salieri.
The position of Mozart – in Salieri’s eyes, at any rate – is clear: he is a madcap, an idle reveller and is unworthy of himself, but he is simultaneously a genius Salieri both admires and envies – a God of music, a cherub who brings us songs from heaven.
The first (albeit obvious) point about Salieri is that he feels a deep-seated animosity towards Mozart. He bitterly resents the fact that the sacred gift of being able to create unimaginably beautiful music has been bestowed on Mozart, and has not been given as a reward for hard toil and self-sacrifice, but 'shines instead inside a madcap's skull'.
Secondly, because of this, Salieri feels an even a deeper conflict with God, who has allowed such an injustice. From his opening lines, Pushkin’s Salieri makes his feeling clear that God has let him down. God has tricked him into leading a pious life. He feels Heaven should have rewarded him for his long and painstaking efforts in musical craftmanship and achieving 'a mastery of the theory' of music. He should have been rewarded for the 'zealous, unremitting application' of his knowledge of theory to his musical compositions.
It seems his toils brought him 'success and glory', but then he sees God’s ultimate injustice: in Mozart’s case, 'the sacred gift' of creation comes not as a reward for toil and devotion, but has been accorded to an 'idle reveller'. Mozart’s art was effortless and irreverent, forever out of reach. God threw the painful truth in Salieri’s face.
Salieri said he envied Mozart. Indeed, he envied him as God’s prodigy. But most of all he hated him, as the ultimate threat to his own existence. Mozart’s phenomenal genius annihilates Salieri's sense of worth. If Mozart continues to exist, Salieri’s own life is impossible.
This takes us to the third point. Salieri then finds a resolution of these two conflicts – he appoints himself as the chosen one to restore on earth the justice which is not to be found in heaven.
Salieri starts to believe that he has been chosen by Fate to stop Mozart, who creates music of such beauty that it dwarfs other contemporary composers. He has a vision of himself as a representative of the Church of Art, a corporate entity which is more important than any individual artist. Thus, the poisoning of Mozart becomes for him “an act of justice furthering the cause of art by... protecting the general community of artists from being reduced to worthlessness by Mozart’s genius” (Antony Wood).
In other words, Salieri is a murderer motivated by a 'high-minded' idea: the murder is justified as necessary for the public good. It is worth noting here that Konstantin Stanislavskiy also thought that in Pushkin's play Salieri was ‘a murderer motivated by an idea’.
In Salieri’s conception, the physical elimination of individuals with outstanding gifts – of individuals who tower over ordinary people - is necessary for the protection of society. One of the powerful messages of Pushkin’s play is how dangerous the development of such a mind-set might be.
Here Pushkin sounds as a true prophet: all subsequent Russian history demonstrates that 'Salierism' is very much alive. It takes meanness and mediocrity to want to stifle genius.
Let's take the fate of Pushkin himself – he was killed not by the bullet of D'Anthes, but by anonymous letters which had been posted to him and his friends, and by the series of events which this mean deed set in train. The author of those letters must have been a member of St. Petersburg high society and close enough to Pushkin to know his family affairs and the circle of his friends.
Similarly, Lermontov was killed not by the bullet of Martynov, but by the refusal of Tsar Nicolas I to allow him to retire from military service. The Tsar hoped that the new troublesome genius who had suddenly appeared so soon after the death of the troublesome Pushkin would be killed in action and wouldn't threaten the 'stability' of post-Decembrist Russia.
This trend continued into the 20th century and into modern times. In November 2017, Pushkin House held a series of events 'to commemorate the phenomenon of the “101st kilometre'' - dedicated to the treatment of 20th Century Russian Mozarts by their contemporary Salieris – the 'ministers and acolytes' of the Church of Anti-Utopia. These Russian Mozarts include Blok, Gumilyev, Mandelstam, Tsvetaeva, Akhmatova, Pasternak, Brodsky... – to name just a few: these are only the tip of the iceberg.
Now to the play. (SLIDE 1) This evening we are going to perform a slightly shortened version of Mozart and Salieri. So I'll briefly outline the plot of the play and illustrate it with some quite striking slides, two of them being drawings by Mikhail Vrubel' [Slide 4 – Salieri meditating in his room on God’s injustice; Slide 11 – Salieri dropping poison into Mozart’s glass].
First, two historical comments. In the play two rumours are mentioned - that two geniuses – the French playwright Beaumarchais and the Renaissance artist Michelangelo - were themselves guilty of murder. (SLIDE 2) In the case of Beaumarchais, it was because he twice married rich widows. Both women died soon after the wedding, and this occurrence gave rise to rumours that Beaumarchais had poisoned them.
(SLIDE 3) In the case of Michelangelo Buonarroti, there was a rumour that he crucified an artist's male model in order to better depict the suffering of the dying Christ.
Neither of these rumours has ever been substantiated.
And now to the play's plot. SCENE 1
(SLIDE 4) The composer Salieri is alone in his room, talking to himself and cursing heaven's injustice. Salieri points out that he has devoted his entire life to music. Through hard work, he has become a respected and renowned musician. He was happy and had never been envious of other musicians. But now he is painfully envious of Mozart. According to Salieri, the "madcap" and "reveller" Mozart does not deserve his genius.
Mozart enters the room. He brings with him a blind musician he had met at an inn. Mozart had been amused by the way the violinist played excerpts from his opera. (SLIDE 5). He asks the fiddler to play for them. Mozart laughs happily. Salieri does not understand how Mozart can be happy about listening to false notes. He orders the musician to get out. Mozart gives the violinist money and asks him to drink his health. [We are not reading this scene with the fiddler.]
Mozart then plays his new composition for Salieri. (SLIDE 6) Salieri admires this .At this point, Pushkin comes up with the shortest and the best description of Mozart's music, in words spoken by Salieri :
“What grace! What depth – what bold magnificence!”
“Какая глубина! // Какая смелость и какая стройность!»
Salieri calls Mozart the God of music, but reproaches him for the fact that he is not worthy of himself. He invites Mozart to dine at an inn. Mozart agrees, but first goes home to warn his wife.
Left alone, Salieri tells himself that he can no longer resist Fate, which has chosen him as its instrument. He believes that he is called upon to stop Mozart, “Or he will be downfall of us all.” In his opinion, the genius Mozart won't benefit art, because after his death music will sink back to its previous mediocre level. Salieri believes that a living Mozart is a threat to Art. He decides to poison his friend over dinner.
SCENE II
(SLIDE 7) Mozart and Salieri dine together in a tavern, in a private room with piano. Mozart admits that he is worried about his new work "The Requiem" - a funeral mass. (SLIDE 8) Three weeks previously, a man dressed in black knocked at his door and when Mozart came out, had commissioned this Requiem from him and then disappeared Mozart has already finished the work, but the customer has so far failed to return. Mozart is haunted by the thought of this stranger. (SLIDE 9) It seems to him that 'The Man in Black' is following him everywhere.
Salieri tries to calm Mozart down. (SLIDE 2 again; NEW SLIDE 10) He mentions Beaumarchais, who had advised him to get rid of black thoughts by drinking champagne or reading 'The Marriage of Figaro'. Mozart knows that Beaumarchais was a friend of Salieri and recalls that Salieri composed his opera 'Tarare' to the French playwright's libretto. He asks en passant if it is true that Beaumarchais had poisoned someone. Salieri replies that the French playwright’s "cheerfulness would have ill fitted him for such a trade".
Mozart says that Beaumarchais was a genius, like both him and Salieri, and that “Genius and evil-doing // Don't go together."
«Гений и злодейство // две вещи несовместные»
At this moment, (SLIDE 11) Salieri quietly drops poison into Mozart's glass. Mozart drinks to Salieri's health and their friendship. (SLIDE 12) Then Mozart begins to play his Requiem on the piano, and Salieri starts crying - these are the tears of a man conscious of having performed an onerous but necessary duty
Mozart feels unwell, he decides to go home and sleep. Salieri knows that his friend will soon die.
Left alone, Salieri reflects on Mozart's words about the incompatibility of genius and evil-doing. As an argument in his favour, he recalls the legend that Michelangelo Buonarroti had sacrificed a man, an artist's model, for the sake of art. But suddenly he is struck by the thought that this is just an invention of the "stupid, senseless crowd" [«Или это сказка //Тупой, бессмысленной толпы»] - and that whoever engages in evil-doing cannot be a genius. SLIDE 11 again [= NEW SLIDE 13]: “Can he be right: I am not a genius?”
Now we'll have a musical interlude – Nadia Giliova will play 'Lacrimosa' from Mozart's Requiem.
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Now Lucy Daniels and Olegar Fedoro will read 'Mozart and Salieri' in Antony Wood’s translation, in a slightly shortened version. Lucy will play Mozart and Olegar Salieri.
There will be two musical inserts during the reading of the play.
Scene 1: In the First Scene, Mozart visits Salieri and plays his new composition for Salieri. After Mozart's words: “Then: a vision of the grave, Or sudden darkness, something of the kind. Listen.” - Nadia will play an excerpt from Mozart's Fantasia 3 in D minor.
Scene 2: In the Second Scene, after Mozart's words: “Listen, Salieri, My Requiem” - Lucy will play the opening chords of Lacrimosa.
I will show SLIDE 11/13 [poisoning] again after the reading of M & S in English
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Alla Gelich is now going to read two excerpts from the play in Russian.
The first excerpt will be from Scene 1: Salieri’s second monologue .
The second excerpt will be from Scene 2: from the final dialogue between Mozart and Salieri.
There will be two musical inserts during Alla's reading of these two excerpts from the play:
* Scene 2: At the same point as during the English reading, that is to say, after Mozart's words: “Слушай же Сальери, мой Реквием” - Lucy will play the opening chords of Lacrimosa.
* After the final words of the play: «...И не был // Убийцею сoздатель Ватикана» Lucy will play final chords of the excerpt from Lacrimosa.
Alla Gelich will now read the two excerpts from ‘Mozart and Salieri’.
During Lucy’s playing at the end, I will show SLIDE 10/12 again.
At the very end, when the music stops, I will show SLIDE 14 [Navalny & Putin].