“La sonnambula” by Vincenzo Bellini libretto (English)

Contents: Roles; Act One; Act Two

ACT ONE

Scene One

A village

(Teresa's mill in the background. From afar pastoral
sounds and distant voices shouting:"Long live Amina!"
These are the villagers, coming to celebrate her
betrothal ceremony. Lisa comes out of her inn, and
after a bit meets Alessio, coming down from the hills.)

CHORUS
Long live Amina!

LISA
All is joy and merriment...
I alone am miserable,
and - o worst of tortures -
to pretend I am compelled.
O fateful beauty, dire for me,
you who steal my treasure,
though Isuffer and I die,
I must embrace you still.
(Men and women of the village come down from the
hills, dressed for the holiday with simple instruments and flowers.)

CHORUS
Long live Amina!

ALESSIO
Lisa! Lisa!

LISA
(Oh! that bore!)

ALESSIO
You avoid me!...

LISA
I'm avoiding everyone.

ALESSIO
Ah, you wily girl, not always
will you flee from me like this.
O lovely Lisa, for you too
a wedding-day will come.
Long live Amina!

LISA (spitefully)
(Him, too! O spiteful fate!

CHORUS
Again, long life!

ALESSIO
All in line...closer here...

LISA
(Rage consumes me!)

CHORUS
We can sing from here
the song we have prepared.

LISA
(My last hope is blighted.
My rival has won out.)

CHORUS and ALESSIO
In Switzerland there is no flower
sweeter, dearer than Amina;
She is like the morning star,
radiant with light and love.
But she is modest and is shy
just as she is beautiful;
Like the guiltless turtledove,
symbol of her innocence,
long life!

LISA
(Ah! I used to think such songs
would one day be sung for me;
cruel love, I cannot bear
to hear them sung now for her.)

ALESSIO
(Beloved Lisa, we could hear
Them singing for us this happy song.
If merciful you would consent
once to hear my prayers to you.)

CHORUS
You, brave youth, are happier,
luckier than a prince or king.
You who finally have come
to deserve Amina's hand!
Love has given you this treasure
of purity and loveliness,
that all the riches in the world,

that no king could ever buy.
like the guiltless turtledove, etc.
(The shouting begins again. Amina enters.)

AMINA
Dear friends, beloved companions
of my girlhood, who share
so much in my joy, how sweet
to my heart is the song
your love inspires!

CHORUS
May you be happy, Amina
this is everyone's wish

AMINA
For you, my beloved,
tender mother, who saved me,
an orphan, for this happy day,
let my joy speak,
and my tears that come more from my heart
than from my eyes -
and this embrace.
Dear friends...companions...
Mother!...what joy!
How peacefully for me
this day is born again!
All the earth is blooming
more lovely and more fair!
Nature never was a-glow
with happier countenance:
Love has coloured it
with my own delight.

ALL
Oh, happy Amina, always,
always thus for you
let Heaven deck the days
that are granted you.
(Amina embraces Teresa and, taking her hand, places it
over her heart.)

AMINA
Place your hand upon my heart,
you can feel it beating;
It's a heart that cannot hold
all the joy if feels.

ALL
Now your mother's heart rejoices
with you in your lucky fate;
providence could not bestow
greater pleasure upon her.

ALESSIO
More than anyone, Amina,
I rejoice with you. I prepared
the celebration, wrote the song;
I assembled the musicians
from the neighbouring towns.

AMINA
And I am grateful, good Alessio.
for your kindness. I hope soon
to return it, when you become
Lisa's husband, if, as they say,
she is prepared
to grant you that happiness.

ALESSIO
You hear her, Lisa?

LISA
No, it won't be soon.

ALESSIO
How cruel you are!

TERESA
And why?

LISA
Don't you know?
I am wary of all love.
I like my liberty.

AMINA
Ah! you cannot know
the happiness that abides
in tender love.

LISA
Love often begins sweetly
and ends in bitterness.

TERESA
(The hypocrite!)

CHORUS
Here's the notary.
(The notary enters.)

AMINA
The notary? And Elvino
Isn't here yet?

NOTARY
He's right behind me.
From above the woods
I saw him in the distance.

CHORUS
Here he is.

AMINA
Dear Elvino, here at last!

ELVINO
Forgive me, beloved,
for this brief delay.
On this solemn day I went
to ask an angel's blessing on our vows;
prostrate at my mother's tomb,
“Bless my wife," I said,
“She has all your virtues:
May she make your son happy
as you did his father." Beloved,
I hope my mother heard.

AMINA
Oh happy omen!

ALL
Let it not be in vain.

ELVINO
And now, friends, all of you,
witness our betrothal contract.
(The notary prepares everything for the signatures.)

NOTARY
Elvino, what gifts do you bring
to your wife?

ELVINO
My farms, my house,
my name, everything
that I possess.

NOTARY
And Amina?...

AMINA
Only my heart.

ELVINO
Ah! the heart is everything!
(As Amina's mother and the witnesses sign, Elvino
presents a ring to Amina.)
Here, receive this ring
that the beloved spirit
who smiled upon our love
wore at the alter.
Let this gift be sacred
as it was to her
let it always be
witness of our trust.

ALL
Your vows are sealed in Heaven
as they are in your hearts.

ELVINO
Now we are betrothed.

AMINA
Betrothed!...Oh sweet word!

ELVINO (giving her a bouquet)
Beloved, upon your heart
let this violet stay.

AMINA
Flower, pure and innocent!

ELVINO
May it remind you of me.

AMINA
My heart doesn't need it.

ELVINO and AMINA
Beloved, ever since the day
that God joined our hearts,
mine has stayed with you,
and yours has not left me.

CHORUS
Your vows are sealed, etc.

AMINA
Ah! could I but find words
to tell how I adore you!

But my voice, beloved,
cannot hold my thoughts.

ELVINO
Everything at this very instant
tells me of the flame I feel:
I discern it in your glance,
in your lovely manner now!
In your countenance my soul
sees itself completely mirrored,
flies to you, is enraptured
with your sweetness and with joy!
Everything at this, etc.

ALL
Ah! thus in your eyes, your hearts
to each other show themselves,
may you always share your thoughts,
read each other's as you do now.

LISA
(I cannot contain much longer
all the scorn I feel within me.)

ELVINO
Tomorrow, when day comes,
we'll go to the church, and our vows
will be solemnised.
What a noise!
(The sound of a whip is heard and the beat of horses' hooves.)

ALL
Horses!

AMINA
A stranger.
(Rodolfo enters with two grooms.)

RODOLFO
How long and tedious
this journey seemed. Are we far
from the castle still?

LISA
It's three miles, you cannot reach it
before the dark of night.
The road is mountainous. I suggest
you stay here until tomorrow.

RODOLFO
I wish to.
Has the village an inn?

LISA
Mine is there.

RODOLFO
That one?

ALL
That one.

RODOLFO
Ah, I know it.

LISA
You do sir?

ALL
Who is this man?

RODOLFO
The mill...the stream...the woods!...
and the farm nearby...
O lovely scenes, again I see you,
where in serenity I spent
the calm and happy days
of my earliest youth.
Beloved places, I have found you,
but those days I'll never find.

ALL
(He knows all about the village:
When was he ever here before?)

RODOLFO
But, unless I am mistaken,
today is some holiday for you.

ALL
A happy marriage is to be made.

RODOLFO (indicating Lisa)
And that girl is the bride?

ALL (pointing to Amina)
No, this girl.

RODOLFO
She is lovely, very charming.
Let me see you. Oh, sweet face?
You can't know how those dear eyes
gently touch my heart,

what adorable beauty
is recalled to my thoughts.
She was then as you are now:
in the morning of her years.

LISA
(Only she is flattered so!)

ELVINO
(She is charmed by those words!)

CHORUS
(How courteous and gallant
are these people from the city.)

ELVINO
Are you familiar
with this town, Sir?

RODOLFO
As a young man I was here
with the lord of the castle.

TERESA
Oh! the noble Lord
died four years ago.

RODOLFO
To my grief!
He loved me like a son...

TERESA
And he had a son, but one day
the youth vanished, and
the unhappy father heard no more.

RODOLFO
I bring certain news
to his neighbours.
The son is alive.

LISA
And when will he return
to his native place?

CHORUS
We all long to see him.

RODOLFO
You'll see him one day.
(The sound of a bagpipe is heard, leading the flocks
back to the fold.)

TERESA
But the sun is setting:
We must prepare to leave.

CHORUS
Leave!...

TERESA
You know the hour is near
when the terrible phantom
reveals itself.

CHORUS
That's right!

RODOLFO
What phantom?

ALL
It's a mystery...
An object of horror!

RODOLFO
Foolishness!

CHORUS
What are you saying?
If you knew, sir...

RODOLFO
Tell me about it.

CHORUS
Hear us, then.
When the sky is dark at night,
and the moon's rays are weak,
at the gloomy thunder's sound
from hill to plain, a shade appears.
Wrapped in falling folds of white,
with streaming hair and burning eye,
like a misty, wind-blown cloud,
it advances; immense it seems.

RODOLFO
It is your blind credulity
that pictures it for you.

TERESA, AMINA, ELVINO
It's not madness; it's not fear:
We all see it. It's the truth.

CHORUS
Wherever with slow step it goes,
a frightening silence rules:
No wind breathes, no reed moves,
even the brook seems to freeze.
And the dogs, all bedded down,
lower their heads, do not howl,
only the owl screaming now and then
from the valley's distant depths.

RODOLFO
If I should stay here, late or soon,
I'd like to see, discover it.

ALL
Heaven save you from the sight!
That would be foolhardiness.

RODOLFO
Enough. Each of us will keep
his own opinion. The time will come
when the village will be free
of such apparitions.

TERESA
Let such be Heaven's will!
That, sir, is the wish of all.

RODOLFO
But I should like to rest
after my journey, if my lovely,
gracious hostess will permit.

ALL
Rest well, sir,
sleep well.

RODOLFO (to Amina)
Farewell, lovely maiden.
Until tomorrow, farewell,
may your husband love you
as I would know how to.

ELVINO
Nobody can surpass
the love I declare for her.

RODOLFO
Lucky you, if you possess her heart.
(Rodolfo goes off with Lisa. The chorus separates.
Elvino is about to leave.)

AMINA
Elvino! Can you leave me
without saying good-bye?

ELVINO
The stranger said it.
And with great tenderness.

AMINA
That's true. He seemed distressed
to leave me. A noble heart
speaks in his countenance.

ELVINO
A lover's heart.

AMINA
Are you serious or joking?
What doubt is this you feel?

ELVINO
It's useless to pretend...
He pressed your hand,
and he caressed you...

AMINA
Well!...

ELVINO
You weren't displeased by it.
Your eyes met his at every word
he spoke to you.

AMINA
Heartless! Can you say this?
I have eyes and heart
only for you. Haven't I sworn
my troth? Haven't I your ring?

ELVINO
Yes.

AMINA
Don't I adore you?
Aren't you my beloved?

ELVINO
Yes...but...

AMINA
Go on, could you be jealous?

ELVINO
Yes, yes, I am...

AMINA
Of whom?

ELVINO
Of everyone.

AMINA
Unjust love!

ELVINO
Forgive me.
I envy the wandering breeze
that plays with your hair, your veil,
I'm jealous of the sun that see you,
of the stream that reflects your face.

AMINA
My love, I'm the breeze's beloved
because I tell him your name;
I love the sun that we share,
the stream that gives you its waves.

ELVINO
Forgive my love its suspicion!

AMINA
You must be rid of it always.

ELVINO
Yes, always.

AMINA
You promise?

ELVINO
I promise.

AMINA and ELVINO
No more doubts! No more fears!
Ah! my love,
serene as the sky at morning
forever, out life shall be.
Farewell, beloved!

ELVINO
Think of me.

AMINA
And you, of me.

AMINA and ELVINO
In sleep I will see you still.
Farewell!
(They leave.)

Scene Two

A room in the inn

(A French window in back. On one side the door; on the
other an inner room. There is a small table and a sofa.
At first Rodolfo is alone, then he is joined by Lisa.)

RODOLFO
Truly, I'm not sorry
I stopped here; the town

is pleasant, the air excellent,
the men courteous, and the women
are loveable indeed.
That young bride is very charming...
And the hostess? She's a little coy;
But I like her, too.
Here she is; come in, come in
my pretty inn-keeper.

LISA
I came in person
to see if the lodging
pleases his honour, the Count.

RODOLFO
The Count!
(The devil, I'm recognised!)

LISA
Forgive me,
but the Mayor has made certain,
and the village is gathering
to welcome you properly,
I thank Providence
that I was allowed
to pay you my respects
before all the others.

RODOLFO
I like another attitude
in pretty girls. And you, Lisa,
are beautiful, really beautiful...

LISA
The Count is joking.

RODOLFO
No, I'm not. These wily eyes -
How many hearts have they bewitched?

LISA
As yet I've no suitors.

RODOLFO
You've deceiving me, sly girl,
I know one of them...

LISA (drawing near)
And he is...?

RODOLFO
If it were I,
What would you say, my beauty?...

LISA
What would I say?
I wouldn't believe it, sir,
I have no beauty so deserving...
Only one virtue is mine:
A sincere heart.

RODOLFO
That is a great deal.
But what should do I hear?

LISA
(Evil take this intruder!)

RODOLFO (opening the French window)
Where does it come from?

LISA
No one must see me.
(Lisa flees into the other room, losing her handkerchief
in her haste. Rodolfo tosses it on the sofa. Amina
appears, dressed in white; from the window is seen the
stair by which she came. She is asleep; a
somnambulist. She comes slowly into the room.)

RODOLFO
What do I see? This must be
the phantom of the night!
I'm not mistaken...
This is the village maid
who seemed so lovely to me before.

AMINA
Elvino...Elvino...

RODOLFO
She's asleep.

AMINA
Why don't you answer me?

RODOLFO
A sleep-walker.

AMINA
Are you still jealous
of the stranger?...Speak!
Are you jealous still?

RODOLFO
Should I waken her?

AMINA
Heartless, comes to me...
You know I love you alone.

RODOLFO
I must wake her up.

AMINA
Here...take my hand...
Give it a kiss,
a token of peace.

RODOLFO
No, she shall not wake...
Nobody must disturb me now.
(He goes to close the window, as Lisa enters, sees
Amina and leaves without the Count having seen her.)

LISA
Amina! Faithless

RODOLFO
(about to go to Amina, then stopping)
God! What am I doing?

AMINA (dreaming of the wedding)
How happy all the people are,
accompanying us to the church!

RODOLFO
The child, even in her dreams,
is filled with her happiness.

AMINA
The holy flame is lighted.

RODOLFO
She thinks she's at the alter!

AMINA
Oh, mother, mother, help me;
my steps fail me now!

RODOLFO
No, dear creature, you'll not be
betrayed ever by me.

AMINA
By heaven I swear my love
and faith will be eternal!

RODOLFO
Flower! so sweet and pure,
keep your innocence.

AMINA
Elvino!...Mine at last.

RODOLFO
I must escape.

AMINA
Now I am yours,
embrace me. Oh joy
that cannot be described.

RODOLFO
Ah! If I stay here further
my resolve will not resist.

AMINA
Elvino, embrace me,
at last you are mine.
(He starts to go out of the door, but hearing the sound
of people, he leaves by the window, shutting it. Amina,
still asleep, lies on the sofa.)

CHORUS (first outside, then closer)
You see: the door is open.
Let's quietly go inside.
It's quiet; he's asleep
shall we wake him or not?
Why not? It takes courage:
We'll show ourselves or go.
By the homage of the town
he cannot be displeased.
Forward. Behold. There he is.
He's fallen asleep in here.
Closer. Ah!...wait now!
(seeing Amina)
It's not he, no, it's not.
From the dress, the form,
it's a woman; yes, it is.
Here's a very strange affair.
How and why did she come here?
(Teresa, Elvino, and Lisa enter.)

ELVINO
It's a lie.

CHORUS
Someone's coming.

LISA (pointing to Amina)
See for yourself.

ELVINO
Good heaven! Amina!

CHORUS
Amina! It's she!

AMINA (awakening at the sound)
Where am I? Who are you?
Ah, my beloved!

ELVINO
Go, faithless!

AMINA
I!

ELVINO
Away from me.

AMINA
Oh! woe am I!
What have I done?

ELVINO
Can you ask?

CHORUS
You see where you are.

AMINA
Here!...Why? Who brought me?

ELVINO
Your traitorous heart.

AMINA
Mother! Oh, mother!
(Amina runs to her mother's arms;
the latter covers her face with her hands.)

CHORUS
Are you convinced now?...

AMINA
Oh! woe am I!
What have I done?
Oh, my grief!
In my thoughts or in my words
never, never have I sinned.
If you have no faith in me,
you do not return my love.
Ah! believe me!

ELVINO
Heaven keep you from feeling ever
the pain that I feel now!
Let the tears from my heart
tell you how I loved you.

CHORUS and ALESSIO
Your dire betrayal of him
is quite clear and evident.

TERESA
Hear her for a moment only;
This cruelty has gone too far.

CHORUS and ALESSIO
What heart can be trusted
if Amina's heart was false?
(During this scene Teresa has picked up Lisa's
handkerchief and tied it at Amina's throat.)

ELVINO
There'll be no wedding.

ALL
No wedding!

ELVINO
Ungrateful one, I leave you.

AMINA
Oh cruel moment!
Hear me...I'm blameless.

ELVINO
Take your presence from me;
your voice horrifies me.

AMINA
Heaven, friend of innocence,
reveal the truth to him.

AMINA and ELVINO
This is not, ungrateful heart,
this is not the great return
that I expected for such love,

that I hoped from such trust...
In a moment you have taken
all my hope of happiness...
Only painful memories
will I have of you...

LISA, ALESSIO, and CHORUS
No more marriage, no wedding:
Only scorn and blame for her.
Guilty, blushing, she will live
in the undying hate of all.

TERESA
If nobody helps you now,
if no favour you receive,
hapless girl, your mother's heart
is not closed against you.
(All leave, Amina falls into the arms of Teresa.)

Contents: Roles; Act One; Act Two