Sisters
in Arms

Repeated refrains are translated once.

Let us drink from the joyful cups that beauty adorns, and let the fleeting hour be intoxicated with pleasure.Let us drink to the sweet tremors that love awakens, for that all-powerful gaze goes straight to the heart.Let us drink! Among the cups, love will receive warmer kisses.Among you I shall know how to share my happiest hours. Everything in the world is folly that is not pleasure.Let us enjoy ourselves, for love’s delight is fleeting and swift. It is a flower that is born and dies, and can no longer be enjoyed.Let us enjoy ourselves. A warm and flattering voice invites us.Ah, let us enjoy ourselves! The cup, the song, the night, and laughter make this paradise more beautiful. May the new day discover us here.Violetta: Life is in celebration. Alfredo: When one has not yet loved. Violetta: Do not say that to someone who does not know it. Alfredo: That is my fate.

Oh, my dear little daddy, I like him; he is handsome, handsome. I want to go to Porta Rossa to buy the ring!Yes, yes, I want to go there! And if I loved him in vain, I would go to the Ponte Vecchio, but only to throw myself into the Arno!I am wasting away and suffering. Oh God, I would rather die!Daddy, have pity, have pity! Daddy, have pity, have pity!

You know it, mother.Before going away as a soldier, Turiddu swore eternal faith to Lola. He returned and learned that she was married.With a new love, he tried to extinguish the flame that burned in his heart.He loved me; I loved him.She, envious of all my happiness, forgot her husband and burned with jealousy.She stole him from me.I remain deprived of my honour. Lola and Turiddu love each other. I weep. I weep.

COUNTESS: A little song on the breeze...SUSANNA: What a gentle little zephyr...COUNTESS: A little zephyr...SUSANNA: This evening will sigh...COUNTESS: This evening will sigh...SUSANNA: Beneath the pines in the little grove.COUNTESS: Beneath the pines...SUSANNA: Beneath the pines in the little grove.COUNTESS: He will understand the rest.SUSANNA: Certainly, certainly he will understand it.

The aria contains many repeated coloratura refrains.

The birds in the arbor, the star of day in the heavens, everything speaks to the young girl of love!Ah, there is the charming song, the song of Olympia!Everything that sings and resounds, and sighs in turn, moves her trembling heart with love!Ah, there is the sweet little song, the song of Olympia!

Dear hall, I greet you again! Joyfully I greet you, beloved room!Within you his songs awaken, and wake me from a dark dream.When he departed from you, how desolate you seemed to me! Peace fled from me, and joy departed from you.Now my breast rises so high, and you appear proud and noble again, for the one who brings new life to you and to me no longer remains far away.Be greeted! Be greeted! You, dear hall, be greeted!

Beautiful night, oh night of love, smile upon our ecstasies. Night sweeter than the day, oh beautiful night of love!Time flies and, without returning, carries away our tenderness. Far from this happy dwelling, time flies and never returns.Burning breezes, pour your caresses upon us. Burning breezes, give us your kisses!Beautiful night, oh night of love, smile upon our ecstasies. Night sweeter than the day, oh beautiful night of love!

The aria uses da capo form, so the opening text returns.

The ship, shattered by storms, if it then reaches port safely, no longer knows what more to desire.So the heart, amid pain and weeping, now that it finds its comfort, returns to delight the soul.

Hell’s vengeance boils in my heart. Death and despair flame around me!If Sarastro does not feel the pains of death through you, then you are my daughter no more.Cast off forever, abandoned forever, shattered forever be all the bonds of nature, unless Sarastro grows pale through you!Hear, gods of vengeance, hear a mother’s oath!

Core aria text; performances may include the preceding letter scene and following cabaletta.

Come! Hurry! I want to set that cold heart aflame.I will give you courage to complete the daring undertaking.The prophetesses promise you the throne of Scotland.Why do you delay? Accept the gift. Climb upon it and reign.

This translation follows the principal verses of Senta’s ballad; repeated cries are retained selectively.

Johohoe!Have you met the ship upon the sea, with blood-red sails and a black mast? High on deck, the pale man, the ship’s master, keeps watch without rest.How the wind roars! How it whistles through the rigging! Like an arrow he flies, without destination, without rest, without peace.Yet redemption may still come to the pale man, if he finds a woman on earth faithful to him until death.Ah, when will you find her, pale sailor? Pray to heaven that soon a woman will keep faith with him.Once, in an evil wind and raging storm, he tried to sail around a cape. He cursed and swore in wild defiance: “For all eternity, I will not give way!”Satan heard him and took him at his word. Condemned, he now sails the sea without rest and without peace.Yet God’s angel showed how the poor man might still find redemption: through the faithful love of a woman.Every seven years he comes ashore to seek a wife. Every seven years he has courted, but he has never found a faithful woman.Raise the sails! Release the anchor! False love, false faith! Back to sea, without rest and without peace!You have no pity for him, but my heart is seized by his suffering.May it be through me, through my faithfulness, that you find redemption.May God’s angel show me to you. Through me, you shall find salvation!

Peace, peace, my God!Cruel misfortune forces me, alas, to languish. As on the first day, for so many years my suffering has remained profound.I loved him, it is true. But God adorned him with such beauty and courage that I love him still, and I shall never know how to remove his image from my heart.Fate! Fate! Fate!A crime separated us here on earth. Alvaro, I love you, and it is written in heaven: I shall never see you again.Oh God, let me die, for death alone can give me calm.In vain this soul hoped for peace here, prey to such grief.Wretched bread, you come to prolong my desolate life.But who is coming? Who dares profane this sacred place?Curse you!

The aria is sung in English. This listening guide paraphrases its copyrighted lyrics rather than reproducing them.

Cunegonde begins by lamenting the shame of the life she now leads. She insists that she should reject luxury and grieve for the innocence she has lost.The jewels interrupt that moral certainty.As she notices the necklaces and earrings around her, sorrow repeatedly gives way to delight. She tries to return to righteous despair, but the glitter keeps winning.The comedy lies in the speed of those reversals. The ache beneath it is real: Cunegonde understands the cage, but she is exhausted, and the cage is beautifully furnished.

The film uses an excerpt from a longer ensemble scene. The exact repeated battle cries vary by cut.

“Hojotoho! Heiaha!” is the Valkyries’ ringing battle cry.They call to one another across the mountain, arrive on horseback, and identify the fallen heroes they have carried from battle.The women gather their horses, compare their prizes, and prepare to ride together toward Valhalla.The text is practical, boisterous, and full of names shouted across the sky. The grandeur comes from the fact that this is ordinary work to them.

Do not tremble, my dear son.You are innocent, wise, and devout. A young man such as you can best comfort this deeply troubled mother’s heart.I have been chosen for suffering, for my daughter is missing. Through her, all my happiness was lost. A villain fled away with her.I still see her trembling with terrified shock, her anxious shaking, her fearful struggling.I had to watch her being torn from me. “Help me!” was all she cried, but her pleading was in vain, for my help was too weak.You will go to free her. You will be my daughter’s rescuer.And when I see you as victor, then she shall be yours forever.

When I walk alone along the street, people stop and look.Everyone examines my beauty, from head to foot.Then I savour the subtle desire that escapes from their eyes, and that can understand, from my visible charms, the hidden beauties.So the fragrance of desire surrounds me completely and makes me happy.And you, who know, remember, and suffer, why do you avoid me so much?I know very well: you do not want to speak of your anguish, but you feel as though you are dying.

I lived for art. I lived for love.I never harmed a living soul.With a secret hand, I helped every misfortune I came to know.Always with sincere faith, my prayer rose to the holy tabernacles.Always with sincere faith, I gave flowers to the altars.In this hour of sorrow, why, why, Lord, why do you repay me like this?I gave jewels for the Madonna’s mantle.I gave my song to the stars and to heaven, which smiled more beautifully because of it.In this hour of sorrow, why, why, Lord, why do you repay me like this?

Beneath the dense canopy, where the white jasmine twines with the rose,on the flowering bank that smiles in the morning, come, let us go down together.Gently let us glide upon its charming current. Let us follow the fleeing stream.On the trembling water, with a carefree hand, let us reach the bank where the bird sings.Beneath the dense canopy, beneath the white jasmine, let us go down together.But I do not know what sudden fear has taken hold of me.When my father goes alone to their cursed city, I tremble with fear.So that the god Ganesha may protect him, let us go to the pond where the swans with snowy wings play joyfully.Let us gather the blue lotuses.Yes, near the swans with snowy wings, let us gather the blue lotuses.