CHAN 3093 BOOK.qxd - Chandos

CHAN 3093 BOOK.qxd 11/4/07 3:31 pm Page 50
Henri
I’m so in love I may expire!
Hortense
Come let’s enjoy…
Henri
A tête à tête?
Hortense
And after supper…
Henri
What joys await!
Hortense
Hush!
Henri
I’m burning with such desire,
my blood’s on fire,
but here’s a cosy chambre séparée!
Hortense
Where we’ll enjoy a tender tête à tête!
Henri
While we sip champagne…
Hortense
Our cares will melt away
Hortense and Henri
Who knows what pleasures await!
Henri
It’s perfect for a tête à tête!
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Hortense and Henri
Our chambre séparée!
translation by Nigel Douglas
from Prince Igor
Song of the Polovtsian Maiden
Polovtsian Maiden
Tender flower, starved of water,
drooping, wilting, in the sunlight burning.
Ah. All her leaves are dry and fading,
and her rosy petals wither.
Polovtsian Maiden and Chorus
Ah. But the sunlight now is dying,
and the dew is falling fast.
Soon the earth will bathe in moisture,
and the flower’s sorrow pass.
In the cool and fragrant evening
she will quench her thirst at last.
Chorus
Sunlight dying, night falls fast.
Dew will fall, and the flower drink at last.
As the flower thirsts for water
so a maiden yearns for her lover.
Polovtsian Maiden
She will pine and she will languish,
and desire her lover’s caresses.
Polovtsian Maiden and Chorus
Ah. But the sunlight now is dying,
and the night is falling fast.
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Soon our lovers will come to join us,
and our sorrows all will pass.
In the cool and fragrant evening
we will quench our thirst at last.
Chorus
Sunlight dying, night falls fast.
Soon we all will quench our thirst at last.
Borodin, translation by David Lloyd Jones
from Die Fledermaus
Orlofsky’s Aria
Orlofsky
Three score and ten the years we men
must suffer here on earth,
but I shall try and try again
to pass the time in mirth.
I ask my friends to join me here,
to while away a night.
But one thing I make very clear
to those whom I invite.
I can’t abide the dreary lout
who makes himself a bore,
and very soon I throw him out,
straight thro’ the nearest door.
When people say ‘That’s surely
a curious thing to do.’
I answer them quite simply
Chacun à son goût.
Vodka!
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All friends to come and go are free,
and all I’ll entertain,
but those who will not drink with me
shall never come again.
One kind of man I can’t endure,
the kind that’s simply crass.
The chronic pestilential bore
who will not drain his glass,
and very soon I let him know
that my last word is said,
I take the glass and throw it so,
directly at his head!
When people say ‘That’s surely
a curious thing to do.’
I answer them quite simply
Chacun à son goût.
Na zdarovye.
C. Haffner & R. Genée after Meilhac and Halévy,
translation by Leonard Hancock and David Pountney
from Faust
Siébel’s Romance
Siébel
When happy days bring you gladness and laughter,
seeing your joy my sadness disappears.
But if the pain and sorrow follow after,
oh, Marguerite, oh, Marguerite,
I shed a tear to mingle with your tears!
We are two flowers that bloom beside each other;
destiny guides us on a single course.
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