“Die Feen” by Richard Wagner libretto (English)

Contents: Roles; Act One; Act Two; Act Three

Act Two

The vestibule of the palace in the capital of
Arindal's Kingdom.
Chorus of the warriors and the people

Chorus
Woe to us, we are beaten
and have flown from the enemy!
Already he is raging outside the walls
and threatening us with ruin!
To you above, O mighty God,
we sound our cry of deep distress!
Hear us and help us!
The fear of death urges us,
we call for help in vain!
Doom awaits us
and threatens torturous death!
(Lora appears in armor.)

Lora
What strikes you so hard with fear of death,
that you fill the air with such cries?

Chorus
We are defeated once more,
we are doomed!

Lora
Faint of heart! Why despair so soon?
Who has been surrounded with more
misfortune
than myself, who is but a weak woman?
My father died, my brother is far away,
and his dear friend missing!
Have you forgotten Groma's prophecy,
that this empire will never be lost,
once Arindal has returned?

Chorus
But who can say to us,
that he will ever return?

Lora
Did I not send dear Morald himself
to seek him and to bring him back?

Chorus
Unfortunate woman! Arindal has been gone so long!

Lora
What are you saying! Woe to me if it were possible!
You awaken in my heart a dark suspicion:
they will never return to me
Oh! Hope! must you dwindle,
you who have been my only consolation,
you who, in my painful suffering,
embraced me with your comforting arm!
To see my brother soon,
was for me a happy hope,
to embrace my friend soon,
was for me supreme bliss!
And if neither returns,
what a painful fate!
So I, completely abandoned,
must perish alone!
(A messenger enters.)

Messenger
Hail all! I bring good news:
Morald returns to us with Arindal!

Chorus
What does he say? God, can it be possible?

Lora
I scarcely trust my ear! Where did you see them?

Messenger
I went with them to seek the king,
we found him and persuaded him to return!

Lora
They return to me!
How can I contain my great delight!
How can I contain my blazing bliss!
I feel my bosom swell,
and joy shakes my burning heart!
My dear brother, I will see,
whose downfall I was lamenting!
Beloved Friend, you return again,
and rush into the arms of your faithful one!

Chorus
What a great joy to us again,
the dear one has returned to us,
hope will raise us once again!
Every heart beats in full delight!
(Lora rushes off and comes back
with Arindal and Morold.)
O king, be greeted by your faithful people! The
jubilation of your return eases their pain!

Arindal
O restrain these jubilant sounds,
they impress on me a warning of terror,
For alas! The rich royal mantle
is to me my father's funeral shroud!

Morald
O Lora, look, what I promised
I held to in spite of dangers:
your dear brother I have brought back again,
are you mindful of my sweet reward?

Lora
O, what reward shall I give you
for this supreme delight!
My friend and my brother, I have back:
All suffering is past!

Lora and Morald
I see fate countered by joy
and feel newly prepared for battle;
for rescue approaches the Fatherland
and love beckons in your arms!
All suffering has fled
and is replaced by joy!
Let us then march to the last battle,
which will lead us to happiness!

Arindal
I fear that fate is turning against me
and feel almost discouraged;
so much misery in the homeland
and new torments await me.
How do I bear all these sorrows,
how can I be strong for battle!
Already the present oppresses me,
and greater horrors await!
(All leave.
Gernot and Gunther come.)

Gernot
How is it, Gunther, that you can still stand on
your own feet?

Gunther
O what a bad night it was!
I have never dreamed of such abominations!

Gernot
But this morning! Was it not
as if the bloody sun wanted to scorch
everything? The earth shook under my feet,
the lightning blinded my vision,
the thunder my hearing!

Gunther
The King himself, how he was shaken!

Gernot
And what do I find here now?
Everywhere full of enemies,
barely a foot's width of land belongs to us!

Gunther
O evil signs, evil times!

Gernot
To me it is as if after a long bout of drink,
the misery shooting through all my limbs!
If only I could find my Drolla!
Tell me: is she still young?

Gunther
That's a stupid question;
since last you were with us, she is eight years
older, then ... she was a child!

Gernot
I mean, pretty?

Gunther
Certainly!
I was often tempted.

Gernot
How?

Gunther
Now, to comfort her!

Gernot
You dared do that!
Did she remain faithful to me?

Gunther
I believe so; ask her yourself,
she is coming here,
I'll leave you two alone!
(Exits. Drolla enters).

Drolla and Gernot
What? Do I see right, is this not Gernot?
(Drolla?)
It's you! Oh what joy!
Ah, after such a long time
we finally see each other again!
To press you to my heart
is a complete delight!
O tell me, tell me,
how have you fared?
O tell! O tell!

Gernot
Things go well with me!
I was with my Lord for so long
with a beautiful queen.
In her castle, the choice among all
the pretty girls was really difficult.
They were all made to be kissed,
one blonde, the other brown,
with black and with blue eyes!

Drolla
Certainly, certainly, quite charming!

Gernot
And since I am also a handsome fellow,
they all fell in love with me,
and I, well, and I..

Drolla
aside
Now truly his words falter!
O wait, you wicked rogue!
To say this to my face,
that's truly outrageous!

Gernot
aside
Now I will learn from her,
whether she really still loves me.
Her jealousy will tell me,
if she believes what I have said!

Drolla
So let me also tell you about myself,
and how I fared for this long time!
At court I've been here so long
as Lora's chief servant.
To court her a large number
of the finest knights moved here,
they were all made to be kissed,
one blonde, the other brown,
with black and with blue eyes

Gernot
I'll turn black and blue myself!

Drolla
And since I'm not ugly,
they all fell in love with me,
and I, well, and I...

Gernot
aside
Now truly her words falter!
O wait, you wicked wench!
To say this to my face,
that's truly outrageous!

Drolla
aside
He can barely control himself for anger!
So he should be with his flighty spirit!
May he quietly despair from jealousy,
if he believes what he heard from me!

Drolla and Gernot
Depart from me, you liar!
I want to see you no more!
So you kept the faith,
that you so often swore to me?
You fall in love with strange men (girls),
while I am far away,
truly I call that cheating,
to do this to your beloved!
(They run away to different sides, but remain
at the extreme ends, and look shyly at one
another from a distance.)

Gernot
Drolla!

Drolla
Gernot?

Gernot
Are you not yet gone?

Drolla
Are you still there?

Gernot
I think, you are crying?

Drolla
What do you care, faithless man!

Gernot
I faithless? Oh indeed, I'm not!

Drolla
Did you not tell me so yourself?

Gernot
Lies, oh, I lied!
No one has fallen in love with me,
and I have yearned only for you,
I wanted to discover how things stood with you?

Drolla
And I truly also have lied
No one has fallen in love with me,
nor I with anyone.
I have remained faithful to you!
To punish you, I lied to you before.

Gernot
What do I hear? Let us embrace at once!
(Embrace)
Forgiveness!

Drolla and Gernot
So we are united,
never more to be separated,
no mistrust, no suspicion
will ever be able to separate us
You love me, what joy,
oh what bliss!
Fabrications and lies
were what divided us!
(Embrace and kiss.)
They will separate us never more,
so to be eternally happy!
(They go out. Ada, Farzana and Zemina appear.)

Ada
O cruel ones, have you no mercy
to drive me coldly to these horrible deeds?

Farzana
Forgive us, we are not to blame for the fate
that you have forged with your own will.

Ada
But since you know what painful fate awaits me,
if I am defeated, do you rejoice so in my pain?

Zemina
O do not believe it, it beings me to tears!
But listen: you can easily withdraw from all
this still,
as soon as you renounce the mortal!

Farzana
There is still time and the choice is clear:
here, long death, and there, eternal life!

Zemina and Farzana
Remember, your choice becomes your fate!
(They disappear.
Ada alone)

Ada
Woe is me, the terrible hour is close,
when all my happiness and all my misery will be revealed!
O why do you wake in my soul
doubts about that bitter choice!
Unhappy, where shall I turn?
My downfall seems so sure,
and oh, how uncertain my victory!
I myself pile up the horrors,
the torments that I lead him to,
I awaken in him doubts,
that no mortal can bear!

From all sides, misfortune storms,
his last star, my love, falls.
The night confuses his mind,
he takes revenge and curses his wife!
Woe is me! And this curse separates me from him,
and ages come between us!
Despair, madness, then death is his lot,
and mine, terrible: for one hundred years
turned into stone!
I could avoid all this,
am I not free to do so? Eternal beauty,
immortal, in bloom unfading?
The fairy world pays homage to me,
I am their splendor and their treasure!
The everlasting kingdom honors
me, its high queen!
I could avoid all this,
and bloom forever in the magnificence of the fairies!
Deceived, unhappy woman!
What is immortality?
A boundless, eternal death!
Yet every day with him
is a new, eternal life!
So be it! The choice is made,
for that life I will sacrifice everything!
My Arindal!
Love will also inspire him
and bestow courage in battle,
boldly he will defeat the doubts
and free me from my bonds!
The false malice will be destroyed,
which aims to separate him from me!
All your efforts will be in vain,
you who want to kill my love!
Yet should he be defeated,
and I be shut up in the rock,
(with great sadness)
so should my love make the stone itself
cry tears of longing!
And these tears would my husband feel,
that sigh would reach to him,
the lament would shake him,

not let him rest, drive him here!
Love will also inspire him
and bestow courage in battle,
boldly he will defeat the doubts
and free me from my bonds!

(Exits)
The stage remains empty for a while.
The chorus of the people and the warriors
appear from different sides.
Lora, Drolla, Arindal, Gunther, Morald and
Gernot enter.

All
Do you hear the tempest roar,
the raging outside the walls?
It is the hordes of the enemy
awakening to new rage!

Arindal
How my heart is filled with fear!

Lora
Up then, my friends, move out!

Arindal
Oh, how can I endure all this misery!

Lora
Free us from this misery!

Drolla
So march out gladly
to the struggle for freedom!

Chorus
So we march out
to the final battle of death!

Arindal
To fight, oh, I can not!

Morald
You warriors, come, I will lead you!
(Exits with the warriors)

Lora
Brother, how is it that you can
withdraw from the holy battle?

Arindal
O Lora, my soul is sick,
and sickly lies my courage!

Drolla and Gernot
Do you see the king's gloomy gaze,
as he struggles in vain to remain calm?

Arindal
How should I endure this further torment,
if mine is already unbearable?

Lora
How should I interpret his mood,
which weighs so heavily on him!
(As Arindal turns away, he confronts Ada.)

Ada
Woe to you, if this is the hardest thing you will
face!

Arindal
Oh heavens, my wife!

All
What, is this his wife?

(Ada gives a sign; her two children appear and
rush into Arinda's arms.)

Ada
Now, Arindal, remember your oath!

Lora, Drolla, Gunther, Chorus
Oh, see the sweet little ones,
how lovely to behold!

Gernot
These are the pretty things,
which she gave to him!

Arindal
Oh, I see my children again,
what a joyous unexpected good fortune!
I will never be robbed of them,
and no cunning will snatch them from me!

All
Behold, O see the lovely little ones, etc.

Ada
O that you had never seen them!
The sight will lead you to grief!
(On her nod, a fiery abyss opens.)

Gunther
and

Gernot
What the devil do I see there?

Chorus
Horror! What is happening?

Arindal
Ha, what are you about?

Ada
Give me back my children!

Arindal
Ha, never! What would you do?

Ada
Let me be, as they are not yet yours!
(She wrests the children from him)

Arindal
Terrible! Are they not mine?

Ada
The fiery abyss will receive them!

Lora, Drolla, Gunther, Chorus
Ha, what does she dare!
Attack and hold them back!

Ada
Back from me, bold man!

Arindal
O woman, I'll not let you do this!
Get away!
(She throws the children into the abyss;
they disappear immediately.)

All
Oh God, what have we seen?
Was it deception, was it the truth?
Horrible woman, what have you done?
Can anyone call you a mother?

Arindal
How powerfully my heart is perturbed
with a mixture of reproach and suspicion!

Ada
How powerfully his heart is perturbed!
Heavens protect him from suspicion!
(Refugees from the Chorus of the Warriors enter.)

Chorus
Flee, we are defeated!

All
What new evil rushes upon us
and threatens us with destruction!

Ada
This disaster is worse for me than for him!
It ordains my doom!

Arindal
Here is discord, outside is destruction,
what new evil!
Oh, Ada, have you no comfort
for me in these grievous sorrows?

Ada
I did not come for your consolation,
for your torment have I appeared!

Arindal
She coldly rejects me.
How could she comfort her husband,
when she has murdered her children?

Lora
My last hope is sinking!
The faithful Harald has failed to appear with

the help which he promised to procure from the
neighboring shores!
O, help, now or never!

Chorus of the people
The storm passes even closer,
do you hear the awful noise?
New refugees appear

Chorus of the warriors
Lost, alas, lost,
nothing can save us now!

Lora
You cowards, why do you flee,
does not the brave Morald lead you?

Chorus of the warriors
He has vanished from us,
trapped or dead!

Lora
(with a cry)
Dead!

All
Everything is falling to ruin,
The bravest have fallen!

Ada
He still does not suspect that I am to blame
for all his misery!

Chorus
Behold, here comes Harald,
with the aid promised us!

Arindal
The last ray of hope!

Ada
It will be my downfall!

Lora
Speak, where are the warriors,
that you bring to save us?

Harald
Woe to you, I bring nothing!
My work is destroyed!

All
What does he say? No help,
only new destruction?

Harald
The best warriors I had recruited;
we were barely out of the city,
when appeared to us an army before us,
at its head an armed woman.
They attacked us with unprecedented might,
and we all were dispersed in a short time.
Then the woman said, "Go home to Arindal,
tell him I am Ada, the Queen!"

Ada
(for herself)
Oh, must I yet endure this!

Arindal
What do you say? Is it this woman,
who gave you the order?

Harald
My king, yes, it is!

All
Dreadful! His wife
is in league with the enemy!

Arindal
Ha, now I see the awful truth!
I was betrayed in everything!
Ha, shameful woman, now you are exposed,
and the goal of your wicked malice!
You are one of those sorceresses,
who ensnares us with love to our ruin!
You held me firmly in vile fetters,
seducing me with evil deception!

Ada
My Arindal!

Arindal
To cruelly torment me,
you sent my children to a fiery death,
shattered my kingdom with monstrous evil,
I myself am abandoned to despair!

Ada
Stop it!

Arindal
Why do I protect you anymore;
to punish you, you gave me the power!
Infamous woman, be then cursed!

Ada
Arindal, stop! Ah!
(Horrible scream)
Perjurer, what have you done!
(Zemina and Farzana appear.)

Zemina und Farzana
Ada, the bonds are dissolved;
you remain immortal, as before!

All
Oh God, what do we hear,
what does it mean?

Ada
(with raging pain)
Monstrous! Is this how you keep your oath?
With such courage do you prove your faithfulness?
Lost, oh, lost! Alas, unhappy
you have made your wife forever!
Know therefore how great the outrage is!
From a mortal and a fairy
did I spring, and so was immortal like my mother.
Since I saw you, it was to you, unfaithful one,
that I turned all my burning love!
It was so great that in order to be yours,
I voluntarily renounced immortality!
The fairy king was angry with me over this,
and since he could not oppose it,
he sought to discourage me;
he set this condition:
for eight years to conceal from you who I was,
and then on the last day to heap upon you
so much agony and terror,
as might convince you to curse me!
Only if your heart were steadfast in love
would I be rewarded the fate of mortality.
If not, I should remain immortal
and then atone for my desires by being for one
hundred years transformed into stone!
Well, now you know my fate!

Arindal
O God, how it roars in my brain!
Tell me, are you not responsible
for the ruin of my kingdom?

Ada
It will be over faster than it started!

Arindal
Well, are those warriors slain,
who were sent to my aid?

Ada
I did it all! Those were your enemy's warriors,
with whom Harald wanted to betray you.
(Harald is seized and taken away.)

Arindal
And Morald, he did not fall, it was only an illusion?

Ada
By my power, he has now defeated the enemy!

Arindal
What more can I ask? Already the madness
touches me!
But my children's murder condemns you!
(At Ada's gesture their two children rush into
Arindal's arms.)

Ada
Pure since their birth, take them,
the world's most beautiful destiny gladdens them;
I alone suffer boundless misery!

Arindal
(Falls at Ada's feet)
Now, in despair, I hear you!

Chorus of the warriors
(Behind the stage)
Triumph! We are free,

the enemy is slain!
(Morald enters with the warriors.)

Morald
I bring joy and victory,
the enemy is destroyed!

All
What do I hear? We are free!

Chorus, Drolla, Gunther, Gernot
Ring out, sounds of exultation
to the sky high above,
now the chants of victory
alone resound!

Lora and Morald
I press you victorious
to my joyful breast!
Such unspeakable joy
(to be freed by you)
(to free you, fairest!)

Zemina and Farzana
So she is saved,
and returned to us.
After suffering exile
she will be immortal!

Ada
Depart from me, traitor,
I thrust you from me!
Ere the day ends
I will be surrounded by stone!
(Arindal writhes at Ada's feet.)

Arindal
Oh Ada, have mercy,
do not send me away from you!
Despair must take me,
madness must be my end!
(The stage darkens Ada sinks with Zemina and
Farzana amid thunder and lightning. Then the
curtain falls quickly.)

libretto by John McKenna, Feb. 2013

Contents: Roles; Act One; Act Two; Act Three