“Un ballo in maschera” by Giuseppe Verdi libretto (English)

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

ACT TWO

A deserted field near Boston, at the foot of a rocky hill
(To the left, two columns shine white in the pale
moonlight. Amelia appears on the hillside. She kneels
to pray, then rises to her feet and slowly descends.)

Prelude

AMELIA
Here is the horrid field where crime
and death are joined together!
There, the columns –

there the plants, green their base.
I shall go on.
Ah, my heart is chilled!
Everything, even the sound of my own step,
fills me with terror!
And if I should die?
To die! If such should be my fate,
my duty, then let it some. So be it.
(She moves on.)
When I have plucked the herb,
with my own hand, from its arid stem,
when from my troubled mind
that dear image will have been effaced,
what is left, once love is dead?
Oh! Who is weeping, what power,
what power holds me back,
barring my way on this fearful road?
courage now – o poor heart, be of stone,
do not betray me, nor yield to tears,
of cease to beat, and die,
crumble to nothingness!
(A bell strikes midnight.)
Midnight! Ah, what do I see?
A head rises up from beneath the earth – and sigh!
In its eyes, anger flashes,
and it stares at me – silent, terrible.
(She falls to her knees.)
Ah, help me, give me strength, o Lord,
mercy on a suffering heart!

RICCARDO
I am with you.

AMELIA
Great God!

RICCARDO
Be calm!

AMELIA
Ah!

RICCARDO
What do you fear?

AMELIA
Ah, leave me –
I am a victim, sobbing before you –
Save at least my name –
Or shame and suffering
will kill me.

RICCARDO
I leave you? No never;
I cannot, because within my breast
an eternal love burns for you.

AMELIA
My lord, take pity on me.

RICCARDO
You speak so to one who adores you?
You ask pity? You are still trembling?
Your name shall never be sullied,
nor honour.

AMELIA
But Riccardo, I am another’s –
I belong to your dearest friend –

RICCARDO
Do not say it, Amelia.

AMELIA
I belong to him
who would give his life for you.

RICCARDO
Ah, cruel woman, and you remind me,
you repeat it to me now!
Do you not see that if remorse
corrodes and cuts my soul,
I cannot hear, nor heed its cry,
so long as my soul is full of love?
You do not know what would be left of you
if your heart should cease to beat!
How many sleepless nights, I have longed for you?
How long I have struggled in my anguish!
how many times have I prayed to heaven
for that pity which now you ask from me!
But in spite of all this, have I ever known
a moment’s peace without you?

AMELIA
Ah, heaven, comfort the anguish
of one who lies between disgrace and death:
Merciful God, shine Thy light on the gate
of salvation, guide my erring step.
(then to Riccardo)
Go, now – let me not hear you, leave me.
I belong to him who gave his blood for you.

RICCARDO
My life, the world,
for one word –

AMELIA
Merciful heaven!

RICCARDO
Tell me you love me –

AMELIA
Riccardo, go!

RICCARDO
One word –

AMELIA
Yes, I love you –

RICCARDO
You love me, Amelia!

AMELIA
But you, in your nobility,
protect me from my heart!

RICCARDO (exultant)
You love me, you love me!
Oh, let remorse, friendship, be destroyed
within my breast: let all be dead,
all except my love!
Oh, how sweet the thrill
which fills my heart!
ah, let me hear you

speak those words again!
star of this darkness,
to whom, I dedicate my heart,
shine your lovelight on me,
then day need never come again!

AMELIA
Ah, on this melancholy bed,
where I yearned to quench it,
this love returns, more overpowering,
this love which wounded me!
Why is it not granted me
to pour out my soul to him?
Or, if not, at least to sleep
forever here, in death.

RICCARDO
Amelia! You love me, Amelia?
You love me?

AMELIA
Yes, I love you. But you, in your nobility,
protect me from my heart.

RICCARDO
Shine your lovelight on me.
You love me, Amelia?

AMELIA
On this melancholy bed, etc.

RICCARDO
Oh, how sweet the thrill, etc.

AMELIA
Alas! Someone is coming.

RICCARDO
Who comes to this
Place of death?...Ah, I am not mistaken!
(Renato comes into view.)
Renato!

AMELIA (lowering her veil in fright)
My husband!

RICCARDO (going towards him)
You, here!

RENATO
To save you from those who,
in hiding above, would ambush you.

RICCARDO
Who are they?

RENATO
Conspirators.

AMELIA (to herself)
Oh heaven!

RENATO
I ran past, wrapped in my cloak;
they took me for one of themselves.
I heard someone call out, “I’ve seen him;
It’s Riccardo, with an unknown beauty.”

Then another said, “A brief conquest!
since he dies, if my swift hand
succeeds in ending his tender embrace.”

AMELIA (to herself)
I am dying!

RICCARDO (to her)
Take heart.

RENATO (covering him with his cloak)
Here, take this.
(then, pointing out narrow path)
Take care, the way to safety is over there.

RICCARDO (taking Amelia’s hand)
I must save you.

AMELIA (sottovoce, to Riccardo)
Wretched me! Go –

RENATO (approaching Amelia)
But you would only expose him, madame,
to their pitiless daggers!
(He goes to see if the enemy is coming.)

AMELIA (to Riccardo)
Please, escape alone!

RICCARDO
And leave you here?

AMELIA
The road is still open to you – flee –

RICCARDO
And leave you alone,
here, with him? No, never! I would sooner die.

AMELIA
Either you escape or I will remove my veil.

RICCARDO
What are you saying?

AMELIA
Decide.

RICCARDO
Desist.

AMELIA
You must.
(to herself)
If it be granted me to save him,
I shall never fear my cruel fate again.

RICCARDO (gravely, to Renato)
My friend, I entrust you with a delicate mission:
Let the love you bear me be your warrant.

RENATO
Trust me, ask what you will.

RICCARDO (indicating Amelia)
Promise me, swear
that you will take her veiled, to the town,
without speaking to her, or looking at her.

RENATO
I swear.

RICCARDO
And that once at the gates, you will go
alone in the opposite direction.

RENATO
I swear it.

AMELIA (softly, to Riccardo)
Do you hear the sombre tones
of death sounding in the night?
From up there, among the black rocks,
the enemy’s signal has been given.
Wrath is burning in their breasts,
they are coming down, encircling you,
their fury is directed full upon you –
for mercy’s sake, go, fly from here.
Go, flee, go!

RENATO (coming beck from his inspection)
Flee, flee; down over the horrid trail,
I hear their pitiless step advancing.
And each of the impious ruffians
brandishes a dagger in his hand.
Go, save yourself, or the pass
will soon be closed;
go save yourself: the life you would throw away
is the life of the people.
Go, flee, go!

RICCARDO (to himself)
Traitors, conspirators, these men
who threaten my life?

Ah, I too am a traitor to my friend –
it is I who have wounded his heart.
Were I innocent, I should challenge them.
Now, guilty of love, I must flee.
May the mercy of the Lord be upon her,
protecting her life!

AMELIA
Do you hear, etc.

RENATO
Flee, flee, etc.

RICCARDO
Traitors, etc.
(Riccardo goes out.)

RENATO
Follow me.

AMELIA (to herself)
O God!

RENATO
Why do you tremble?
You can trust in me. Let a friend’s voice
encourage you!
(Samuel, Tom and their men enter from above.)

AMELIA
Here they come.

RENATO
Quick! Lean against me.

AMELIA
I am dying.

CHORUS (in the distance, gradually coming nearer)
Let us fall upon him,
the hour at last has struck.
The rising sun
will find his corpse.

SAMUEL (to Tom)
Do you see his goddess
there all veiled in white?

TOM
Let us plunge him from heaven
into hell.

RENATO (shouting)
Who goes there?

SAMUEL
That’s no he.

TOM
Oh, fury!

CHORUS
It is not his lordship.

RENATO
No, it is I
who stand before you.

TOM
His trusted friend!

SAMUEL
We have been
less fortunate than you;
we waited in vain
for a beautiful woman’s smile.

TOM
I at least should like to see
this goddess’ face.

RENATO
Not one step more: if you dare,
I’ll draw my sword –

SAMUEL
You threaten us?

TOM
I do not fear you.
(The moon is now shining brightly.)

AMELIA
Oh, heaven help us!

CHORUS (to Renato)
Put down sword –

RENATO
Traitors!

TOM (tries to pull off Amelia’s veil)
Enough of this –

RENATO (drawing his sword)
Then your life
will pay for this insult.
(All attack Renato; at this moment, Amelia beside
herself, intervenes, and in doing so lets fail her veil.)

AMELIA
No – stop –

RENATO (thunderstruck)
What! Amelia!

SAMUEL and TOM
She! His wife!

AMELIA
Oh, heaven! Mercy!

SAMUEL and TOM
His wife!

RENATO
Amelia!

SAMUEL
See how, at night, the enamoured hero
comes here to rest with his bride,
and how in the honeyed moonlight
he lies on a bed of dew!

SAMUEL and TOM
Ha, ha, ha! Ha, ha ha!
What gossiping there’ll be about this,
what comments we’ll hear in the town!

RENATO
This is my reward for saving him!
He has defiled my wife!
Because of him, I dare not lift my head,
he has destroyed my heart forever!

AMELIA
To whom, in this ever crueller world,
can you turn, O wretched Amelia?
Where will you find a compassionate hand
to dry your miserable tears?

SAMUEL and TOM
Ha, ha, ha! ha, ha. ha!
What gossiping there’ll be, etc.

RENATO
Because of him I dare not, etc.

AMELIA
To whom in this ever crueller, etc.

RENATO
(approaches Samuel and Tom, then resolutely)
Will you meet with me
at my home tomorrow morning?

SAMUEL and TOM
Are you asking for satisfaction?

RENATO
No. Something quite different is in my mind.

SAMUEL and TOM
What is it?

RENATO
If you come, you shall know.

SAMUEL and TOM
We shall not fail.
(as they go out, with their companions)
Let us go, then: each separate
from the others, each by a different way!

SAMUEL, TOM and CHORUS
Tomorrow morning
will see great things.
Let us go, let us go.
See how the tragedy changed to farce.
Ha, ha, ha! Ha, ha, ha!
What gossiping there’ll be, etc.

RENATO (alone with Amelia)
I have sworn to escort you
to the gates of the town.
Let us go! Let us go!

AMELIA (to herself)
How like the knell of death
his voice strikes on my heart!
(to Renato)
Oh no! Have pity!

CHORUS (from the distance)
What gossiping there’ll be, etc.

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