ANDRE:
Your public needs you!
FIRMIN:
We need you, too!
CARLOTTA:
Would you not rather have your precious little ingenue?
ANDRE/FIRMIN:
Signora, no! The world wants you!
Prima donna, first lady of the stage!
Your devotees are on their knees to im-plore you!
ANDRE:
Can you bow out when they're shouting your name?
FIRMIN:
Think of how they all a-dore you!
BOTH:
Prima donna, enchant us once again!
ANDRE:
Think of your muse
FIRMIN:
And of the queues round the theatre!
BOTH WITH PIANGI:
Can you de-ny us the tri-umph in store?
Sing, prima donna, once more!
RAOUL:
Chris-tine spoke of an angel...
CARLOTTA:
Prima donna, your so-ong shall live again
(ANDRE/FIRMIN:
Think of your public!)
CARLOTTA:
You took a snub but there's a public who needs you!
[GIRY:
We have heard the voice of the angel]
(ANDRE/FIRMIN:
Those who hear your voice liken you to an angel!)
CARLOTTA:
Think of their cry of un-dying sup-port!
(ANDRE:
We get our opera
FIRMIN:
She gets her limelight!)
CARLOTTA:
Follow where the lime-light leads you!
(ANDRE/FIRMIN:
Leading ladies are a trial!)
CARLOTTA:
Prima donna, your song shall never die!
(PIANGI:
When she sings we see heaven)
CARLOTTA:
You'll sing a-gain, and to unending o-vation!
(RAOUL:
Orders! Warnings! Lunatic demands!)
[ANDRE/FIRMIN:
Tears... Oaths... Lunatic demands are regular oc-currences!]
CARLOTTA:
Think how you'll shine in that final en-core!
Sing, prima donna, once more!
RAOUL:
Surely, for her sake...
(ANDRE/FIRMIN:
Surely there'll be further scenes - worse than this!)
[RAOUL:
...I must see these demands are rejected!]
ANDRE/FIRMIN:
Who'd believe a diva happy to relieve a chorus girl,
Who's gone and slept with her pat-ron?
Raoul and his soubrette, entwined in love's duet!
Al-though he may demur, he must have been with her!
(CARLOTTA
O, fortunata!
Non ancor
Abbandonata!)
ANDRE/FIRMIN:
You'd never get away with all this in a play,
But if it's loudly sung and in a foreign tongue,
It's just the sort of story audiences adore, in fact, a perfect opera!
GIRY/MEG:
For (But) if his curse is on this opera...
COMPANY:
Prima donna, the world is at your feet!
A nation waits, and how it hates to be cheated!
(song slows down)
Light up that stage with that age-old rap-port!
(Strum rapidly and VERY loudly)
NC
Sing, prima donna...
(COMPANY takes a HUGE gulp of air, watch out for Carlotta's very high notes.)
NC
ONCE MORE!
(Curtain closes)
...
to another song.