Your public needs you!

FIRMIN

We need you, too!

CARLOTTA (unassuaged)

Would you not rather have your

precious little ingenue?

ANDRE/FIRMIN

Signora, no!

the world wants you!

ANDRE/FIRMIN

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!

BOTH

Prima donna, enchant us once again!

ANDRE

Think of your muse . . .

FIRMIN

And of the queues round the theatre!

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!

ANDRE/FIRMIN (to CARLOTTA)

Think of your public!

CARLOTTA

You took a snub

but there's a public who needs you!

GIRY (referring to CHRISTINE)

She has heard the voice

of the angel of music . . .

ANDRE/FIRMIN (to CARLOTTA)

Those who hear your voice

liken you to an angel!

CARLOTTA

Think of their cry of undying

support !

RAOUL

Is this her angel of music . . .?

ANDRE (to FIRMlN)

We get our opera . . .

FIRMIN (to ANDRE)

She gets her limelight!

CARLOTTA

Follow where the limelight

leads you!

MEG

Is this ghost

an angel or a madman . . .?

RAOUL

Angel or madman . . .?

ANDRE/FIRMIN (aside)

Leading ladies are a trial!

GIRY

Heaven help you, those who doubt . . .

CARLOTTA

You'll sing again,

and to unending ovation!

RAOUL

Orders! Warnings!

Lunatic demands!

GIRY

This miscasting

will invite damnation . . .

ANDRE/FIRMIN

Tears . . . oaths . . .

Iunatic 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!

GIRY

Oh fools, to have flouted his warnings!

RAOUL

Surely, for her sake . . .

MEG

Surely he'll strike back . . .

ANDRE/FIRMIN

Surely there'll be further scenes -

worse than this!

GIRY

Think, before

these demands are rejected!

RAOUL

. . .I must see

these demands are rejected!

MEG

. . . if his threats

and demands are rejected!

ANDRE/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!

MEG/RAOUL

Christine must be protected!

CARLOTTA

0, 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!

RAOUL

His game is over!

GIRY

This is a game

you cannot hope to win!

RAOUL

And in Box Five

a new game will begin . . .

GIRY

For, if his curse is on this opera . . .

MEG

But if his curse is on this opera . . .

ANDRE/FIRMIN

Prima donna

the world is at your feet!

A nation waits, and how it hates

to be cheated!

CARLOTTA

The stress that falls upon a

famous prima donna!

Terrible diseases,

coughs and colds and sneezes!

Still, the dryest throat

will reach the highest note,

in search of perfect opera!

MEG/GIRY

. . . then I fear the outcome . . .

RAOUL

Christine plays the Pageboy,

Carlotta plays the Countess . . .

GIRY

. . . should you dare to . .

MEG

. . . when you once again . . .

ALL

Light up the stage

with that age old rapport!

Sing, prima donna,