Act 2, Part 2 Summary

As the scene changes to Salieri's home, now more richly furnished, Salieri and the Venticelli discuss Salieri's successes - in particular, his latest opera, how Mozart completely dismisses it, and how Mozart has asked permission to write an Italian opera based on The Marriage of Figaro, a play by a French playwright that Van Swieten describes as "a vulgar farce." Mozart enters, continuing his argument with Van Swieten, saying he wants to set opera in "a real place" because he wants "life in opera, not boring legends." Mozart continues with a long, extravagant, blunt speech about why he prefers stories of real people over stories of "gods" and "heroes," and why music is the perfect way to represent life and all the complications of "this second in time." Mozart wonders if that's how "God hears the world. Millions of sounds ascending...