of Salzburg, Salieri is shocked to discover that the transcendentally talented Mozart is obscene and immature. Salieri, a devout Catholic, cannot fathom why God would endow such a great gift to Mozart instead of him and concludes that God is using Mozart's talent to mock Salieri's mediocrity. Salieri renounces God and vows to take revenge on Him by destroying Mozart. Mozart's alcoholism deteriorates his health, marriage, and reputation at court, even as he continues to produce brilliant work. Salieri hires a young girl to pose as Mozart's maid and discovers that Mozart is working on an opera based on the play The Marriage of Figaro, which the Emperor has forbidden. When Mozart is summoned to court to explain, he manages to convince the Emperor to allow his opera to premiere, despite Salieri and the advisers' attempts at sabotage. When Mozart is informed that his father has died, he writes Don Giovanni in his grief. Salieri recognizes the dead commander in the opera as symbolic of Mozart's father and concocts a scheme; he leads Mozart to believe that his father has risen to commission a Requiem. He then plans to kill Mozart once the piece is finished and premiere it at Mozart's funeral, claiming the work as his own. Meanwhile, Mozart's friend Emanuel Schikaneder invites him to write an opera for his theatre. Mozart obliges despite his wife Constanze's insistence that he finish the Requiem, as the opera is a riskier venture financially. After arguing with Mozart, Constanze leaves with their young son, Karl. The opera in question, The Magic Flute, is a great success, but the overworked Mozart collapses during one performance. Salieri takes him home and persuades him to continue the Requiem, offering to take the bedridden Mozart's dictation; the two lay down the opening of the Confutatis together. The next morning, Mozart thanks Salieri for his friendship, and Salieri admits that Mozart is the greatest composer he knows. Constanze returns and demands that Salieri leave immediately. In her guilt, she locks the unfinished Requiem away in a cabinet, keeping it away from both composers; as she and Salieri argue, Mozart dies from exhaustion. Mozart is taken out of the city and unceremoniously buried in a mass grave. Back in 1823, Vogler is too shocked to absolve Salieri, who surmises that the "merciful" God preferred to destroy His beloved Mozart rather than allow Salieri to share in the smallest