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“La bohème” by Giacomo Puccini libretto (English)
Contents: Roles; Act One; Act Two; Act Three; Act Four |
Translation: William Fense Weaver © Capitol Records, Inc., 1952 |
The Barrière d'Enfer (Beyond the tollgate is the main highway. At left, a tavern. A small square flanked by plane trees. Some customs officers are asleep around a brazier. Shouts and laughter issue from the cabaret. Dawn. February. The snow is everywhere. Some street-sweepers are beyond the gate, stamping their feet in the cold.) SWEEPERS Hey, there! Guards! Open up! We're the sweepers from Gentilly. It's snowing. Hey! We're freezing here. CUSTOMS OFFICER (yawning) I'm coming. VOICES FROM THE TAVERN Some find pleasure in their cups, and on ardent lips find love. |
VOICE OF MUSETTA Ah! Pleasure is in the glass! Love lies on young lips. VOICES FROM THE TAVERN Tra la la la Eve and Noah. VOICES FROM THE HIGHWAY Houp-la! Giddap! CUSTOMS OFFICER Here come the milkmaids! (He opens the gate. The milkmaids enter together with a string of peasants' carts.) MILKMAIDS Good morning! PEASANT WOMEN Butter and cheese! Chickens and eggs! Which way are you going? To Saint Michel! Shall we meet later? Yes, at noon. (They go off. Enter Mimì. When she reaches the first tree, she has a fit of coughing. Then recovering herself, she says to the sergeant:) MIMÌ Excuse me, where's the tavern where a painter is working? |
SERGEANT There it is. MIMÌ Thank you. (A waitress comes out of the tavern. Mimì approaches her.) Oh, good woman, please... Be good enough to find me Marcello, the painter. I must see him quickly. Tell him Mimì's waiting. SERGEANT (to someone coming in) Hey! that basket! CUSTOMS OFFICER Empty! SERGEANT Let him through. (Marcello comes out of the tavern.) MARCELLO Mimì?! MIMÌ I hoped I'd find you here. MARCELLO That's right. We've been here a month, at the host's expense. Musetta teaches the guests singing. |
And I paint those warriors by the door there. It's cold. Come inside. MIMÌ Is Rodolfo there? MARCELLO Yes. MIMÌ I can't go in. No, no! MARCELLO Why not? MIMÌ Oh! help me, good Marcello! Help me! MARCELLO What's happened? MIMÌ Rodolfo - he loves me but flees from me, torn by jealousy. A glance, a gesture, a smile, a flower arouses his suspicions, then anger, rage... Sometimes at night I pretend to sleep, and I feel his eyes trying to spy on my dreams. He shouts at me all the time: "You're not for me. Find another. |
You're not for me." I know it's his jealousy speaking, but what can I answer, Marcello? MARCELLO When two people are like you two, they can't live together. MIMÌ You're right. We should separate. Help us, Marcello, help us. We've tried again and again, but in vain. MARCELLO I take Musetta lightly, and she behaves like me. We love light-heartedly. Laughter and song - that's the secret of a lasting love. MIMÌ You're right, you're right. We should separate. Do as you think best. MARCELLO All right. I'll wake him up. MIMÌ Is he sleeping? MARCELLO He stumbled in here an hour before dawn |
and fell asleep on a bench. Look at him... (Mimì coughs.) What a cough! MIMÌ I've been aching all over since yesterday. He fled during the night, saying: "It's all over." I set out at dawn and came here to find you. MARCELLO (watching Rodolfo through the window) He's waking up. He's looking for me...Here he comes. MIMÌ He mustn't see me. MARCELLO Go home now, Mimì. For God's sake, no scenes here. (Mimì hides behind a tree, Rodolfo hastens out of the tavern.) RODOLFO Marcello! At last! No one can hear us here. I've got to leave Mimì. MARCELLO Are you as fickle as that? |
RODOLFO Already once before I thought my heart was dead. But it revived at the gleam of her blue eyes. Now boredom assails it... MARCELLO And you'll bury it again? RODOLFO Forever! MARCELLO Change your ways! Gloomy love is madness and brews only tears. If it doesn't laugh and glow love has no strength or voice. You're jealous. RODOLFO A little. MARCELLO You're raving mad, a mass of suspicions, a boor, a mule! MIMÌ (He'll make him angry. Poor me!) |
RODOLFO Mimì's just a flirt toying with them all. A foppish Viscount eyes her with longing. She shows him her ankles, promising, luring him on. MARCELLO Must I tell you? You aren't being honest. RODOLFO All right, then. I'm not. I try in vain to hide what really torments me. I love Mimì more than the world. I love her! But I'm afraid... Mimì is terribly ill, weaker every day. The poor little thing is doomed... MARCELLO Mimì? MIMÌ (What does he mean?) RODOLFO A horrible coughing racks her fragile chest... Her pale cheeks are flushed... |
MARCELLO Poor Mimì! MIMÌ (Am I dying? Alas!) RODOLFO My room's like a cave. The fire has gone out. The wind, the winter wind roars through it. She laughs and sings; I'm seized with remorse. I'm the cause of the illness that's killing her. MARCELLO What's to be done? MIMÌ (Oh! my life! It's over! Alas! To die! etc.) RODOLFO Mimì's a hothouse flower, blighted by poverty. To bring her back to life love's not enough. MARCELLO Poor thing. Poor Mimì! (Mimì sobs and coughs.) |
RODOLFO What, Mimì? You here! You heard me? MARCELLO She was listening then. RODOLFO I'm easily frightened, worked up over nothing. Come inside where it's warm. (He tries to lead her inside.) MIMÌ No. It's so close. I'd suffocate. (Musetta's laughter comes from inside.) RODOLFO Ah, Mimì! MARCELLO That's Musetta laughing. And with whom? The flirt! I'll teach her. (Marcello runs into the tavern.) MIMÌ (to Rodolfo) Goodbye. RODOLFO What? You're going? MIMÌ Back to the place I left at the call of your love, |
I'm going back alone to my lonely nest to make false flowers. Goodbye...no hard feelings. But listen. Please gather up the few things I've left behind. In the trunk there's the little bracelet and my prayer book. Wrap them in an apron and I'll send someone for them... Wait! Under the pillow there's my pink bonnet. If you want...keep it in memory of our love. Goodbye, no hard feelings. RODOLFO So it's really over. You're leaving, my little one? Goodbye to our dreams of love. MIMÌ Goodbye to our sweet wakening. RODOLFO Goodbye, life in a dream. MIMÌ Goodbye, doubts and jealousies... RODOLFO ...That one smile of yours could dispel. MIMÌ Goodbye, suspicions... |
RODOLFO Kisses... MIMÌ ...Poignant bitterness... RODOLFO ...That, like a poet, I made rhyme with caress. RODOLFO and MIMÌ To be alone in winter is death! MIMÌ Alone... RODOLFO and MIMÌ But when the spring comes the sun is our companion. MIMÌ The sun is our companion. (Marcello and Musetta come out, quarrelling.) MARCELLO What were you doing and saying by the fire with that man? MUSETTA What do you mean? What do you mean? MIMÌ Nobody's lonely in April. |
MARCELLO When I came in you blushed suddenly. MUSETTA The man was asking me... "Do you like dancing, Miss?" RODOLFO One can speak to roses and lilies. MIMÌ Birds twitter softly in their nests. MARCELLO Vain, empty-headed flirt! MUSETTA I blushed and answered: "I could dance day and night!" MARCELLO That speech conceals infamous desires. MUSETTA I want complete freedom. MARCELLO I'll teach you a thing or two... RODOLFO and MIMÌ With the coming of spring, the sun is our companion! |
MUSETTA What do you think you're saying? We're not married, after all. MARCELLO ...If I catch you flirting! Keep in mind, no horns will grow under my hat. MUSETTA I can't stand lovers who act just like husbands. RODOLFO and MIMÌ The fountains whisper, the evening breeze heals the pain of human creatures... MARCELLO I won't be laughed at by some young upstart. Vain, empty-headed flirt! You're leaving? I thank you, I'll be a rich man then. MUSETTA I'll flirt with whom I please. You don't like it? I'll flirt with whom I please. Musetta goes her way. MARCELLO and MUSETTA Goodbye. |
RODOLFO and MIMÌ Shall we wait until spring comes again? MUSETTA I bid you, sir, farewell - with pleasure! MARCELLO Your servant, and I'm off! MUSETTA (leaving) You house-painter! MARCELLO Viper! MUSETTA Toad! MARCELLO (re-entering the tavern) Witch! MIMÌ Always yours...all my life. RODOLFO and MIMÌ We'll part when the flowers bloom! MIMÌ I wish that winter would last forever! RODOLFO and MIMÌ We'll part when the flowers bloom! |
libretto by William Fense Weaver |
Contents: Roles; Act One; Act Two; Act Three; Act Four |