[ANDRE]
Your public needs you
[FIRMIN]
We need you too
[CARLOTTA]
Wouldn't you rather have your precious little ingénue?
[ANDRE & FIRMIN]
Signora, no! The world wants you
Prima Donna, first lady of the stage
Your devotees are on their knees to implore you
[ANDRE]
Can you bow out when they're shouting your name?
[FIRMIN]
Think of how they all adore you
[ANDRE & FIRMIN]
Prima Donna, enchant us once again
[ANDRE]
Think of your muse
[FIRMIN]
And of your queues 'round the theatre!
[ANDRE & FIRMIN]
Can you deny us the triumph in store? [ANDRE, FIRMIN
& PIANGI]
Sing, Prima Donna, once more
Think of your public
Those who hear you liken you to an angel
[ANDRE]
We get her Opera
[ANDRE & FIRMIN]
Leading ladies are a trial
Tears...
Oaths...
Lunatic demands are regular occurrences
Surely there'll be further scenes—
Worse than this!
[CARLOTTA]
Prima Donna
Your song shall live again
You took a snub
But there's a public who needs you
Think of the cry of undying support
Follow
where the
limelight
leads you
Prima Donna
Your song shall never die
You'll sing again
And to unending ovation
Think how you'll shine in that final encore
Sing Prima Donna once more
[RAOUL]
Christine spoke of an angel
[MME GIRY]
She has heard the voice of the Angel of Music
[FIRMIN]
She gets her limelight
[PIANGI]
You'll sing to me sweet heaven?
[RAOUL]
Orders, warnings
Lunatic!
I must see these demands are rejected! [ANDRE & FIRMIN]
Who'd believe a diva
Happy to relieve a
Chorus girl whose gone
And slept with the patron?
Raoul and the soubrette,
Entwined in love's duet!
Although he may demur
He must have been with her!
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!
[CARLOTTA]
O!
[?]
Fortunata!
Non ancor
Abbandonata
[MEG & CHRISTINE]
For if his curse
Is on this Opera... [ALL]
Prima Donna the world is at your feet
A nation waits, and how it hates to be cheated!
Light up the stage with that age-old rapport
Sing Prima Donna
Once more!