a vertical line of indicates areas of the text where there is a
substantial overlapping of different voices)
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!
Prima donna,
enchant us once again!
ANDRÉ
Think of your muse...
FIRMIN
And of the queues
round the theatre!
Can you deny us the triumph
in store?
Sing, prima donna,
once more!
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!
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!
Is this her angel of music...?
ANDRÉ
We get our opera...
FIRMIN
She gets her limelight!
CARLOTTA
Follow where the limelight
leads you!
Is this ghost
an angel or madman...?
Angel or madman...?
ANDRÉ/FIRMIN
Leading ladies are a trial!
CARLOTTA
Prima donna,
your song shall never die!
Voice of hell, or of heaven...?
Heaven help you,
those who doubt...
CARLOTTA
You'll sing again,
and to an unending
ovation!
Orders! Warnings!
Lunatic demands!
This miscasting
will invite damnation...
ANDRÉ/FIRMIN
Tears... oaths...
lunatic demands
are regular occurrences!
Bliss or damnation?
Which has claimed her...?
CARLOTTA
Think how you'll shine
in that final
encore!
Sing, prima donna,
once more!
Oh fools,
to have flouted his warnings!
Surely, for her sake...
Surely, he'll strike back...
ANDRÉ/FIRMIN
Surely, there'll be further scenes -
worse than this!
Think, before
these demands are rejected!
...I must see
these demands are rejected!
...if his threats
and demands are rejected!
ANDRÉ/FIRMIN
Who'd believe a diva
happy to relieve a
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
O, fortunata!
Non ancor
abbandonata!
ANDRÉ/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!
His game is over!
This is a game
you cannot hope to win!
And in Box Five
a new game will begin...
For, if his curse
is on this opera...
But if his curse
is on this opera...
ANDRÉ/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 driest throat
will reach the highest note,
in search of perfect
opera!
MEG/GIRY
...then I fear the outcome...
Christine plays the Pageboy,
Carlotta plays the Countess...
...should you dare to...
...when you once again...
Light up the stage
with that age-old
rapport!
Sing, prima donna,
once more!
PHANTOM
(spoken)
So, it is to be war between us! If these
demands are not met, a disaster beyond
your imagination will occur!
Once more

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