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Prima Donna Tab

by Andrew Lloyd Webber


ANDRE: 
Your public needs you!

FIRMIN: 
We need you, too!

CARLOTTA: 
Would you not rather have your precious little ingenue?

ANDRE/FIRMIN:
                              
Signora, no! The world wants you! 

Prima donna, first lady of the stage!
                                     
Your devotees are on their knees to im-plore you!

ANDRE: 
                                     
Can you bow out when they're shouting your name?

FIRMIN: 
                       
Think of how they all a-dore you!

BOTH:
 
Prima donna, enchant us once again!

ANDRE:             
Think of your muse

FIRMIN:
                           
And of the queues round the theatre!

BOTH WITH PIANGI: 
                          
Can you de-ny us the tri-umph in store?
                      
Sing, prima donna, once more! 

RAOUL:
                      
Chris-tine spoke of an angel...

CARLOTTA: 
                          
Prima donna, your so-ong shall live again


(ANDRE/FIRMIN:

Think of your public!)
CARLOTTA:
                                           
You took a snub but there's a public who needs you!
[GIRY: 
                       
We have heard the voice of the angel]

(ANDRE/FIRMIN:
                                         
Those who hear your voice liken you to an angel!)

CARLOTTA:
                              
Think of their cry of un-dying sup-port!

(ANDRE: 
                         
We get our opera

FIRMIN:
               
She gets her limelight!)

CARLOTTA:
                          
Follow where the lime-light leads you!

(ANDRE/FIRMIN: 
                   
Leading ladies are a trial!)

CARLOTTA: 

Prima donna, your song shall never die!

(PIANGI: 

When she sings we see heaven)

CARLOTTA: 
                                    
You'll sing a-gain, and to unending o-vation!

(RAOUL: 
                
Orders! Warnings! Lunatic demands!)

[ANDRE/FIRMIN: 
                                                                    
Tears... Oaths... Lunatic demands are regular oc-currences!]

CARLOTTA: 
                                    
Think how you'll shine in that final en-core!
                      
Sing, prima donna, once more!

RAOUL:
 
Surely, for her sake...

(ANDRE/FIRMIN:
                                   
Surely there'll be further scenes - worse than this!)

[RAOUL:
                                  
...I must see these demands are rejected!]


ANDRE/FIRMIN: 
              
Who'd believe a diva happy to relieve a chorus girl,
                                  
Who's gone and slept with her pat-ron?
                                    
Raoul and his soubrette, entwined in love's duet!
                          
Al-though he may demur, he must have been with her!

(CARLOTTA 
       
O, fortunata! 

Non ancor 
         
Abbandonata!)

ANDRE/FIRMIN:
                        
You'd never get away with all this in a play,
                                           
But if it's loudly sung and in a foreign tongue,
                                                        
It's just the sort of story audiences adore, in fact, a perfect opera!

GIRY/MEG:                       
                                  
For (But) if his curse is on this opera...

COMPANY:  

Prima donna, the world is at your feet!
                                    
A nation waits, and how it hates to be cheated!

(song slows down)
                                   
Light up that stage with that age-old rap-port!
(Strum rapidly and VERY loudly)
               NC       
Sing, prima donna... 

(COMPANY takes a HUGE gulp of air, watch out for Carlotta's very high D notes.)
           NC   
ONCE MORE!

(Curtain closes)
  ...

Intro to another song.