[ANDRÉ]
Your public needs you!
[FIRMIN]
We need you, too!
[CARLOTTA]
Would you not rather have your
precious little ingenue?
[ANDRÉ/FIRMIN]
Signora, no!
The world wants you!
[ANDRÉ/FIRMIN]
Prima donna, first lady of the stage!
Your devotees are on their knees
to implore you!
[ANDRÉ]
Can you bow out
when they're shouting your name?
[FIRMIN]
Think of how they all adore you!
[BOTH]
Prima donna, enchant us once again!
[ANDRÉ]
Think of your muse...
[FIRMIN]
And of the queues round the theater!
[BOTH]
Can you deny us the triumph in store?
Sing, prima donna, once more!
[RAOUL]
Christine spoke of an angel.
[CARLOTTA]
Prima donna, your song shall live again!
[ANDRÉ/FIRMIN]
Think of your public!
[CARLOTTA]
You took a snub,
but there's a public
who needs you!
[GIRY]
She has heard the voice
of the angel of music...
[ANDRÉ/FIRMIN]
Those who hear your voice
liken you to an angel!
[CARLOTTA]
Think of their cry of undying support!
[ANDRÉ]
We get our opera...
[FIRMIN]
She gets her limelight!
[CARLOTTA]
Follow where the limelight
leads you!
[ANDRÉ/FIRMIN]
Leading ladies are a trial!
[CARLOTTA]
Prima donna,
your song shall never die!
You'll sing again,
and to an unending
ovation!
[RAOUL]
Orders! Warnings!
Lunatic demands!
[GIRY]
This miscasting
will invite damnation...
[ANDRÉ/FIRMIN]
Tears...oaths...
lunatic demands
are regular occurrences!
[MEG]
Bliss or damnation?
Which has claimed her...?
[CARLOTTA]
Think how you'll shine
in that final
encore!
Sing, prima donna,
once more!
[ANDRÉ/FIRMIN]
Surely, there'll be further scenes -
worse than this!
[RAOUL]
...I must see
these demands are rejected!
[ANDRÉ/FIRMIN]
Who'd believe a diva
happy to relieve a
chorus girl, who's 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!
[ANDRÉ/FIRMIN]
Prima donna,
the world is at your feet!
A nation waits,
and how it hates
to be cheated!
[ALL]
Light up the stage
with that age-old
rapport!
Sing, prima donna,
once more!