“Roméo et Juliette” by Charles Gounod libretto (English)

Contents: Roles And Prologue; Act One; Act Two; Act Three; Act Four; Act Five

ACT ONE

The Capulets’ Ball
(A brilliantly lit gallery in the house of the Capulets.
Lords and Ladies in dominoes, and masked.)

No.1 Introduction

CHORUS
The hour flies past
in wild merriment,
we must seize it as it goes by!
Let us gather the roses
that have bloomed for us
in joy and delight.
(the Men)
Fantastical chorus
of love,
behind the
velvet mask
your empire
entices us
with a smile,
with a glance!
And, a willing accomplice,
the heart glides [hither and thither]
at the whim
of chance!

(the Ladies)
Night of madness!
Night of rapture!
They beset us,
they pursue us!
The least susceptible
will surrender
and be taken
in our snares!
Of the fair lady
who invites him
everything reveals
the charms!
(All)
The hour flies past, etc.
(Tybalt and Paris enter, carrying their masks.)

TYBALT
Well, dear Paris, what think you
of the Capulets’ feast?

PARIS
Wealth and beauty conjoined
are the guests of this palace.

TYBALT
You do not see its marvel,
the unique and priceless treasure
destined for the lucky Paris.
The unique treasure destined for the lucky Paris.
Look, look! Here she is, accompanied by her father.
(Capulet enters leading Juliet by the hand. At sight of
him, everyone unmasks.)

CAPULET
Be you welcome, friends, in my house!
On this family occasion
joy is in season, joy is in season!
Just such a day as this saw the birth of my daughter!
My heart still beats with pleasure when I
think of it!
But excuse my indiscreet show of affection!
(presenting Juliet)
This is my Juliet!
Greet her with an indulgent eye.

THE MEN (admiringly)
Ah, how beautiful she is! Ah, how beautiful she is!
You’d think her a flower
new-bloomed at morning!

THE LADIES
Ah, how beautiful she is! Ah, how beautiful she is!
She seems to carry within her
all the favours of destiny.

ALL
Ah, how beautiful she is!
(The opening measures of a dance-tune are heard.)

JULIET
Hark, hark!
’Tis the sound of merry instruments
that summons and invites us!
Ah! –
A whole enchanted world seems to rise up
before my eyes!
Everything bids me welcome.
and elates me, and my delighted soul
leaps forward into life
as a bird wings off into the skies!

CAPULET
Come on, you young men!
Come on, you fair ladies!
To the most zealous
these glowing eyes!
A plague on the killjoys
who endlessly chide!
Give a welcome to youth
and make way for the dancers!
Who remains in his place
and does not foot it,
makes silent admission
of some secret shame.
Who remains in his place, etc.
O utmost regret!
When I was younger
I myself used to lead
your joyful revels!
Soft words
cost me nothing!
What frivolous confessions
I remember!
O the wild years
swept away by Time!
O springtime flowers
for ever faded!
Come on, you young men! etc.
A plague on the killjoys! etc.

CHORUS
A plague on the killjoys
who endlessly chide!
Let’s give welcome to youth
and make way for the dancers!
(Everyone withdraws and circulates in the adjoining
galleries. Juliet goes out on Paris’s arm, followed by
Capulet and Tybalt, chatting together. Romeo and
Mercutio appear with their friends.)

MERCUTIO
At last we’re alone, friends!
Allow us, if you will,
to unmask for a moment.

ROMEO
No!...No! You gave your promise;
let us be cautious! Here no one must
recognise us!
Let’s leave this house without confronting
the master.

MERCUTIO
Bah! If the Capulets are fellows to take offence
’tis cowardice to conceal ourselves.
(tapping his sword)
For we all have something here that’ll take care of them!
(with chorus)
Yes, we all have something here that’ll take care of them!

ROMEO
It might have been better not to involve
ourselves in the festivities!

MERCUTIO
Why?

ROMEO (mysteriously)
I have dreamed a dream!

MERCUTIO
(in a comic show of terror)
O alarming portent!
Queen Mab has been with you!

ROMEO (startled)
What?...

No.2 Ballad of Queen Mab

MERCUTIO
Mab, queen of illusions,
presides over dreams;
more fickle
than the deceiving wind;
through space,
through the night,
she passes
and is gone!
Her chariot, drawn through the limpid ether
by swift atomies
was made from an empty nutshell
– an earthworm was the cartwright!
The harness, a delicate lacework,
has been cut from the wing
of some green grasshopper
by her coachman, a gnat!
A cricket’s bone serves as the handle
of her whip, whose white lash
is fashioned from a moonbeam shed
by Phoebe assembling her court!
Nightly in this equipage
Mab visits, on her rounds,
the husband dreaming of widowerhood
and the lover dreaming of love!
At her approach the coquette
dreams of finery and dresses,
the courtier bows and scrapes,
the poet rhymes his verse!
To the miser in his gloomy lodging
she discovers treasures without number,
and freedom smiles in the dark
at the prisoner loaded with chains.
The soldier dreams of ambuscadoes,
of battles and surprise attacks,
she pours out for him the bumpers of wine
with which his laurels are sprinkled.
And you, o virgin whom a sigh startles,
as you lie abed
she lightly touches your lips
and makes you dream kisses!
Mab, queen of illusions, etc.

No.2a Recitative and Scene

ROMEO
Well!...whether the warning
comes to me from Mab or another,
beneath this roof which is not our own
I feel troubled by a black presentiment!

MERCUTIO (teasing him)
Your melancholy, as I devise,
comes from not finding your Rosaline here;
a hundred others at the ball will make you forget
your mad schoolboy love!
Come along!

ROMEO (glancing outside)
Ah! look!

MERCUTIO
What now?

ROMEO
This celestial beauty
who seems like a sunbeam in the night!

MERCUTIO
The imposing dame with her
is of more modest beauty...

ROMEO (passionately)
O treasure worthy of the heavens!
What sudden light has opened my eyes!
I did not know true beauty!
Did I love till now? Did I love?...

MERCUTIO
(laughing, to Benvolio and the other young men)
Good! So to the devil with Rosaline!
And – we had foreseen this!

ROMEO’S FRIENDS
We had foreseen this!

MERCUTIO
She’s been dismissed
without further concern,
and thus the comedy
comes to an end!

ROMEO’S FRIENDS
She’s been dismissed, etc.

(Mercutio hurries Romeo away, just as Juliet appears,
attended by Gertrude.)

JULIET
See, nurse, they’re waiting for me!
Speak quickly!

GERTRUDE
Draw breath a moment!
(maliciously)
Is somebody dodging me,
or is it Count Paris she’s looking for?

JULIET (offhandedly)
Paris?

GERTRUDE
You will have in him, they say,
a pearl among husbands.

JULIET (laughing)
Ha! ha!
Truly I do think of marriage.

GERTRUDE
By my virtue, I was married at your age!

JULIET
No, no! – I’ll not listen to you any longer –
leave my heart to its springtime!

No.3 Arietta

JULIET
Ah! –
I want to live
in this intoxicating dream!
This day still,
gentle flame,
I keep you in my heart
like a treasure!
I want to live, etc.
This intoxication
of youth
alas! lasts but a day!
Then comes the time
when one weeps,
the heart surrenders to love
and happiness flies off for ever!
Ah! – I want to live, etc.
Far from sullen winter
let me slumber
and breathe the rose,
breathe the rose
before despoiling it.
Ah! – Ah! – Ah! –
Gentle flame,
stay in my heart
like a sweet treasure
for a long while yet.
Ah! – like a treasure
for a long while yet!

No.3a Recitative

(Gregorio appears at the back and encounters Romeo.)

ROMEO
(to Gregorio, pointing out Juliet to him)
The name of this fair child?

GREGORIO
Know you not? It is Gertrude.

GERTRUDE (turning round)
What’s that?

GREGORIO (to Gertrude)
Most gracious lady!
I think they require you to attend to the
supper.

GERTRUDE (impatiently)
Very well! Here I am!

JULIET
Go!
(Gertrude goes out with Gregorio. Romeo stops Juliet
just as she is leaving.)

ROMEO
For pity’s sake, stay!

No.4 Madrigal (for two voices)

ROMEO
Adorable angel,
my guilty hand
profanes, by daring to touch it,
the divine hand
which I imagine
no one has the right to approach!
Here, I think,
is the penance

proper to impose on me –
it is that I efface
the unworthy trace
of my hand by a kiss!

JULIET
Calm your fears!
These handclaspings
of the pilgrim on his knees
even the saints –
provided that he loves –
have pardoned in advance;
(She withdraws her hand.)
but the hand that he touches
to his lips
ought prudently to refuse
that enchanting
caress
he implores in a kiss!

ROMEO
Yet the saints have rosy lips...

JULIET
Only for praying with!

ROMEO
Do they not hear the voice whichcounsels them
a more merciful decree?

JULIET
Their hearts remain unmoved by the prayers of love
even as they grant them.

ROMEO
Then do you grant mine, and keep unmoved
your blushing face.
(He kisses Juliet’s hand.)

JULIET (smiling)
Ah! I could not help it!
I have taken the sin upon myself!

ROMEO
To allay your anxiety
would you like to give it back to me?

JULIET
No! I have taken it! Leave it with me!

ROMEO
You have taken it away! Give me back my sin!

JULIET
No! I have taken it! Leave it with me! etc.

ROMEO
You have taken it away! Give me back my sin! etc.

No.5 Finale

ROMEO
Someone comes!
(He replaces his mask.)

JULIET
It’s my cousin Tybalt.

ROMEO
Ah! what’s this? You are...

JULIET
My lord Capulet’s daughter.

ROMEO (aside)
God!

TYBALT (coming forward)
Your pardon, coz!...
Our friends will desert our festivities
if you shun them like this!
Come then! Come then!
(under his breath)
Who is this fine gallant who so quickly masked himself
when he saw me coming?

JULIET
I know not!

TYBALT (scornfully)
You’d say he’s avoiding me!

ROMEO
God keep you, sir.
(He goes out.)

TYBALT
Ah! I recognise him by his voice!... by my hatred!
It’s he! It’s Romeo!

JULIET (with consternation)
Romeo!

TYBALT
’Pon my honour,
I shall punish the traitor and his death is certain!
(He goes out.)

JULIET (terrified)
It was Romeo!
(absorbed and staring fixedly)
Ah, too early seen unknown!
Hatred is the cradle of this fatal love!
It is all over! If I may not be his,
let the grave be my wedding-bed!
(She goes out slowly: the guests begin to drift back. –
Tybalt comes in from one side with Paris. Romeo,
Mercutio, Benvolio and their friends, masked, enter from
the other.)

TYBALT (catching sight of Romeo)
Here he is! Here he is!

PARIS (coming up with Tybalt)
What is it?

TYBALT (indicating Romeo)
Romeo!!!

PARIS
Romeo!
(Tybalt moves as though to rush upon the group;
Capulet, with an imperious gesture, enjoins silence upon him.)

ROMEO (aside)
My very name
is a crime in her eyes!
O the pain of it!
Capulet is her father, and I love her!

MERCUTIO (to Romeo)
See! See what a furious look
Tybalt turns upon us!
A storm is in the air!

TYBALT
I’m shaking with rage!

CAPULET (to his guests)
What! You are going already? Stay awhile! Stay awhile!
A trifling foolish banquet is towards!

TYBALT
Patience! give me patience!
For this mortal insult
Romeo, I swear,
shall suffer punishment!

MERCUTIO
We’re being watched, keep quiet!
We must use caution!
Let’s not foolishly wait for
something disastrous to happen.

CAPULET (to his guests)
Let the festivities proceed!
Let us all drink and dance!
In the old days, I vow,
we danced more bravely!
We danced, etc.

CHORUS
Let the festivities proceed!
Let us all drink and dance!
Pleasure is fleeting!
Let us end the night gaily!
Pleasure, etc.
(Mercutio hurries Romeo away; they are followed by
Benvolio and their friends.)

libretto by Joseph Allen, 1969

Contents: Roles And Prologue; Act One; Act Two; Act Three; Act Four; Act Five