Ça Ira (There is hope)

An opera in three acts by Roger Waters

Released September 27th 2005.

Buy from Amazon.co.uk

A classical opera in three acts by Roger Waters after original libretto by Nadine and Etienne Roda-Gil.

All the lyrics for 'Ca Ira' can now be found further down on this page. Thanks to Zechariah for typing and submitting the lyrics to this site.

cover

Tracklist

Act 1

  1. Gathering Storm
  2. Overture
  3. Scene 1: Garden In Vienna 1765
  4. Madame Antoine Madame Antoine
  5. Scene 2: Kings Sticks And Birds
  6. Honest Bird Simple Bird
  7. I Want To Be King
  8. Let Us Break All The Shields
  9. Scene 3: Grievances Of The People
  10. Scene 4: France In Disarray
  11. To Laugh Is To Know How To Live
  12. Slavers Landlords Bigots At Your Door
  13. Scene 5: Fall Of The Bastille
  14. To Freeze In The Dead Of Night
  15. So To The Streets In The Pouring Rain

Act 2

  1. Scene 1: Dances And Marches
  2. Now Hear Ye
  3. Flushed With Wine
  4. Scene 2: The Letter
  5. My Dear Cousin Bourbon Of Spain
  6. Ship Of State Is All At Sea
  7. Scene 3: Silver Sugar And Indigo
  8. To The Windward Isles
  9. Scene 4: Papal Edict
  10. In Paris There's A Rumble Underground

Act 3

  1. Scene 1: Fugitive King
  2. But The Marquis Of Boulli Has A Trump Card Up His Sleeve
  3. To Take Your Hat Off
  4. Echoes Never Fade From That Fusillade
  5. Scene 2: Commune De Paris
  6. Vive La Commune De Paris
  7. National Assembly Is Confused
  8. Scene 3: The Execution Of Louis Caapet
  9. Adieu Loius For You It's Over
  10. Scene 4: Marie Antoinette – Last Night On Earth
  11. Adieu My Good And Tender Sister
  12. Scene 5: Liberty
  13. And In The Bushes Where They Survive

Disc 3 (DVD)

Making Of The Opera -A film by Adrian Maben.

What is: hybrid SACD + DVD

The "Lavish First Edition DigiPack" includes the full opera on two hybrid SACDs + a bonus "Making Of 'Ça Ira '" DVD and a 60-Page four-color booklet containing libretto, cast credits, & original Illustrations. "Ça Ira" is being released in the hybrid SACD (Super Audio CD) format in Dolby Digital 5.1 SurroundSound. The hybrid SACD disks are compatible with standard CD players.

A version in french was also released.

April 2004:

3 tracks from the new opera by Roger Waters premiered at EU accession event in Malta.

After having worked on the opera project "Ca Ira" for several years Roger Waters finally gave a glimpse of what it's all about. On 1st of May Malta (and other countries) enter as new members of the European Union. A 15-minute part of "Ca Ira" was played as part of the celebrations at the Grand Harbour in Malta at midnight. The music was not a live performance but part of a visual show arranged by the German artist Gert Hof. "Ça Ira" is about the French revolution and the 3 tracks played were titled: "Ca Ira Overture", "Taking of Bastille" and "Sugar Indigo".

May 26, 2005: Press Release announcing Ca Ira

SONY BMG MASTERWORKS/COLUMBIA RECORDS READIES THE RELEASE OF ROGER WATERS' LONG-AWAITED CLASSICAL OPERA, "ÇA IRA"

Lavish First Edition DigiPack Includes Full Opera On Two Hybrid SACDs, Bonus "Making Of 'Ça Ira '" DVD, & 60-Page Four-Color Booklet Containing Libretto, Cast Credits, & Original Illustrations

"Ça Ira" In Stores Tuesday, September 27

Sony BMG Masterworks/Columbia Records is proud to announce the release of "Ça Ira," Roger Waters long-awaited "operatic history of the French Revolution," on Tuesday, September 27.

The lavish first edition of "Ça Ira," an opera in three acts for full orchestra, soloists and choirs, will include a double SACD DigiPack and a deluxe 60 page four-color booklet including Roger Waters' lyrics based on Etienne Roda-Gil's original French libretto, the original illustrations created by Nadine Roda-Gil, biographies of Waters and the opera's cast, background and production notes on the opera.

As a bonus for Roger Waters fans, "Ça Ira" includes a special DVD documentary chronicling the "making of" the opera. The "Ça Ira" DVD traces the history of the project, from conception to completion, and includes revelatory interviews with Waters and the musicians and cast of "Ça Ira" as well as exclusive in-the-studio footage of the recording of the opera.

"Ça Ira" is being released in the hybrid SACD (Super Audio CD) format in Dolby Digital 5.1 SurroundSound. The hybrid SACD disks are compatible with standard CD players.

Waters, who co-founded the groundbreaking rock group Pink Floyd in 1966, began to bridge the worlds of rock and classical music in such pioneering major works as "The Dark Side Of The Moon" (1973) and "The Wall" (1979) in which he incorporated elements of operatic form--theatricality, coherent narrative, dramatic arcs, thematic music and song cycles--in a pop context.

Waters' work on "Ça Ira," his first opera for full orchestra and voice, began in 1989, during the Bicentennial of the French Revolution. The well-respected and successful songwriter Etienne Roda-Gil and his wife, Nadine, had created an original libretto for an opera, written in French, as part of the Bicentennial. Entitled "Ça Ira," after a revolutionary song of the period, the Roda-Gil's original manuscript, copiously and beautifully illustrated by Nadine, portrayed the events and the spirit of the French Revolution through a multitude of perspectives--ranging from Marie Antoinette to the eyes and ears of the period's revolutionaries and common people--using a circus as a central theatrical framing device and metaphor.

Introduced to Etienne Roda-Gil by a mutual friend, Waters was immediately and deeply impressed by the passion and the power of Etienne's manuscript and began work on creating a full orchestral score for "Ça Ira." Work on the project was suspended when Nadine died tragically of leukemia. Several years passed before Roger and Etienne returned to "Ça Ira."

In 1997, Roger began writing an English version of the text. "It's not just a translation," he says. "I've stuck very much to the spirit of Etienne's original, adding to it somewhat. Although it's rooted in the history of the revolution, its philosophical slant is, I suppose, contemporary as well. It's more than just a history of the French Revolution, it's a piece about the human potential for change."

The finished version of "Ça Ira" features orchestration and choral arrangements by Rick Wentworth and Roger Waters, also the album's producers. Principal characters in the opera are brought to life by the Welsh bass-baritone Bryn Terfel (the Ringmaster, the Troublemaker, Louis Capet - the King of France); internationally acclaimed soprano Ying Huang (Marie Marianne - the Voice of Liberty, Reason and the Republic, Marie Antoinette - the Queen of France); American tenor Paul Groves (A Revolutionary Priest, A Military Officer); and Nigerian "one man orchestra" Ismael Lo (a Revolutionary Slave). Other parts are sung by Jamie Bower (Honest Bird - the young Revolutionary Priest) and Helen Russill (Madame Antoine - the young Marie Antoinette).

Before the rise and fall of the guillotine, before the terror took hold, the People of France fought for a better world based on the ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity rather than one ruled by a callous and outmoded nobility. It is this story of hope and promise that inspired "Ça Ira." Set during the optimistic early days of the French Revolution, "Ça Ira is a work of stunning power and beauty, invoking the passion, madness, and triumph of faith in a time that forever changed the nature of the world.

Ça Ira (There is hope) - the lyrics

All lyrics by Roger Waters from the original Libretto by Etienne & Nadine Roda-Gil.

[1] THE GATHERING STORM

(instrumental)

[2] OVERTURE

(instrumental)

ACT ONE

Scene 1
"A Garden in Vienna, 1765"

[3] RINGMASTER
Within our humble sawdust ring
The players are arraigned
The powerful and puny
The saintly and deranged

The Honest Bird, a future queen
All innocent and green
Sparring all the livelong day
Make ready for our play
So gentles all, who will hold sway
To a garden in Vienna, let us make our way...

[4] MARIE THERESE
Madame Antoine, Madame Antoine
It's getting dark outside
It's time to come in

MADAME ANTOINE
Oh Mother!

MARIE THERESE
Madame Antoine, it's time to come in

MADAME ANTOINE
Yes, yes mother, I'm coming
One day...
One day I'll be queen
Live on peaches and cream
Wear satin and lace
And laugh in the faces
Of the teachers and priests
And the boys will all fawn
Fawn before me like beasts

MARIE THERESE
Madame Antoine, it's time to come in

HONEST BIRD
Little princess, so sure you are right
But your endless day is their endless night
You can preen in the limelight
In your diamonds in pearls
But the children go hungry
In that other world

MARIE THERESE
Madame Antoine, it's time to come in

MADAME ANTOINE
Little sparrow fly back to wherever you're from
You could never imagine the plane I live on
The intricate steps of the tumblers and clowns
Are above and beyond you cock robin
So just you pipe down

Scene 2
"Kings, Sticks and Birds"

[5] RINGMASTER
Ladies and Gentlemen
Imagine a bird on song in a tree
An ordinary bird like you or like me
Imagine some ruffian happening by
And beating him within an inch of his life

CHORUS
Ahh!

RINGMASTER
Then a priest from some denomination
Witnessing this abomination
Blesses not the bird but the beast
The Unknown Soldier appears on the field
And takes the bird's feathers to put on his shield
Then a powerful judge from the high court
Decrees that the birds really ought
Not be allowed to sing in the trees
But then one day
Some of the priests and soldiers and judges
Putting aside some old worn grudges
Changes their minds and the birds sang again
It was the Revolution
The Revolution is a story of birds
Of sticks and stones and bushes and bones

RINGMASTER & CHORUS
A story of now, a story of then
A story of woman, a story of men

RINGMASTER
A story of everything to come
Of everything under the sun

[6] MARIE MARIANNE
Honest bird, simple bird
Just longing to be spreading the word
Feeling the rain, feeling the sun
But your time has not come
Your song is not heard
Honest bird

MALE CHORUS
Singing is forbidden in the fig tree
Singing is forbidden in the olive tree
Singing is forbidden in the pear tree
No singing in the olive or the fig or the pear tree

MALE CHORUS & CHILDREN
No more singing in the fig tree
No more singing in the pear tree
Someone’s hanging in the olive
There's someone hanging in the olive tree
Singing in the fig tree, that's forbidden
Singing in the pear tee, that’s forbidden
Singing in the olive, that's forbidden
Someone's hanging in the olive tree
Someone's hanging in the olive tree

MARIE MARIANNE
You come to earth, you have no choice
Could be a seamstress or serving girl
Or butcher's boy
Could be a dead beat
Or one of the elite
Maybe the bird ill find his voice
And make a choice
From all the wheat and all the chaff
It's the knowledge that you glean
Makes you what you'll be
And the knowledge that you lack
A rod for your own back
Leaves you in purgatory
Honest bird, simple bird
[7] Make your choice, find your voice

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Make your choice, find your voice

CHORUS
I want to be King, Queen, Courtesan, Dauphin
I want to be Cardinal, Capitaine, King of Kings
I want to be God

SOLO BOY
I want to be the King

SOLO GIRL
I want to be the Queen

SOLO GIRL
I want to be the Courtesan

SOLO BOY
I want to be the Dauphin

SOLO BOY
I want to be the Cardinal

SOLO BOY
I want to be the Capitaine

CHORUS
I want to be the King of Kings
I want to be God

SOLO BOY
I am a great big pig

SOLO BOY

I am the King of France

SOLO BOY
His wife likes to dance

SOLO BOY
I am the Church of Rome
I stand behind the throne

SOLO BOY
I am the public purse; they think I'm bottomless

SOLO BOY
I am the public accounts; I admit I'm a bit of a mess

solo girl
I am the American war and they say I'm rather greedy

SOLO GIRL
I am the national debt; I’m big but needy

SOLO BOY
I am a noble

SOLO BOY
I am the clergy

SOLO BOY
I am the ordinary man

SOLO GIRL
I am hungry

SOLO GIRL
I am starving!

CHILDREN'S CHORUS
The cake needs re-carving!

TROUBLEMAKER
I'm a ravening wolf

MALE CHORUS
I'm a, I'm a, I'm a ravening wolf

FEMALE CHORUS
I'm a, I'm a, I'm a heart of thorns

MALE CHORUS
It's the end of the shield of divine law

TROUBLEMAKER
I'm the oak tree

CHILDREN'S CHORUS
I am the oak tree and I am the columbine
I am the pig searching for truffles

CHORUS
And I am the peacock whose feathers are ruffled

[8] TROUBLEMAKER
Let us break all the shields
And soil the ermine
Take the oak and the olive tree
Make their philosophy our own
The pigs eat the acorns
The rich eat the pork
The poor eat the olives and spit out the stones

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
We only ask a little tax from the nobility
The spat out stone will grow in time into an olive tree
We will smoke our pork over a fire of basilic

TROUBLEMAKER
And we will plant the laurel tree

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
To make

TROUBLEMAKER
To make

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
A wreath

TROUBLEMAKER
A wreath
A wreath to crown the République

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
We will smoke our pork upon the pyre of privilege
The flames of castles burning will dance from ridge to ridge
We'll break all the shields
Spit out all the stones
Make the oak and the olive trees' philosophy our own
The pigs eat the acorns
The rich eat the pork
The poor eat the olives and spit out the stones

CHORUS
We will smoke the pork on a fire of basilic
We will plant the laurel tree to make our laurel wreaths
To crown, to crown, to crown the République!

Scene 3
"The Grievances of the People"

[9] RINGMASTER
The sparrow, bedraggled, looks up through the rain
And dreams of a little more grain
The peacock, plump in his place in the sun
Ignores the sound of the distant guns
Their thunder falls upon deaf ears
The peacock never sniffs the air
He fails to see that a starvation diet brings
The scent of riot on the breeze
The King; The State; La France
Each of the above must with regret cut off all payment
The cupboard is bare
The State of France lies in disrepair

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
The Bishops hide the grain; to the attics it's sent
If everyone is hungry, tell me, who can be content?

SOLO BOY
Altogether now!

CHILDREN'S CHORUS
We hand out pamphlets, we join a club
We shout out slogans that we make up
We thumb our noses, at those above
We hand out pamphlets, we join a club

TROUBLEMAKER
We join a club, a safety net
But it's more like a gin trap that's been carefully set

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
We write what we can on the cow's flayed hide
Our grievances are noted and then brushed to one side
But the pain we feel keeps us alive

TROUBLEMAKER
Bushes and bones and sticks and stones

CHORUS
Now, then, women and men

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
In Manosque the bishops get what they deserve
Stoned to death and we retrieve the grain from their reserves

FEMALE CHORUS
We plunder all the bakeries

CHORUS
Searching for our courage in...

MALE CHORUS
Searching for our courage in...

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Searching for our courage in...

RINGMASTER & MARIE MARIANNE
...this folly

Scene 4
"France in Disarray"

[10] RINGMASTER
The winger of eight-eight and nine
Was aching cold, it chilled the very soul
They came from the country in twos and threes
A trickle, a river, a torrent, a sea,
Driven by hunger, driven by pain

SERGEANT
Company...Halt!...

RINGMASTER
A hundred thousand reached the barricade

SERGEANT
Present... Fire!...

RINGMASTER
Three hundred dead, shot down like rats
Three hundred lives, snuffed out like that
Have a care if you treat your people like vermin
You could end up with bloodstained ermine
But soft
As ever in the ebb and flow
Sweet reason, deft and incorrupt
Adoring of the human kind illuminates man's plight
Should be embrace
The brute and base
Tilt blindly at the carousel
Or note, at least, the other voice
And entertain the choice
Between the darkness and the light?

[11] MARIE MARIANNE
To laugh is to know how to live
To see is to know everything
To read is to hold the key that you need
The key you need to set you free

RINGMASTER
All the world can see that in this great library
There's a good medicine against tyranny
And the movement of the heavens
Though it may last forever
sees no right, no wrong, no weak, no strong
And the star you see in the sky and the moon and the sun
Shine on prince and pauper alike and favour no one

SOLO GIRL & CHILDREN'S CHORUS
The politics of the Rights of Man
Is the sharing of apples with an even hand
TO plant a tree were birds my sit
But who in France will nurture it

[12] REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Slaves, Landlords, Bigots at your door
Aristocrats, Democrats, survivors of the North American war
Some with heart, some without hate
Some with faith in the human race
And so the loan sharks
Selling dreams in honeyed tones like skylarks
And rats who speak like cats of sacred rights
The sacred rights of the family

MARIE MARIANNE
And al those brave souls both brave enough and crazy enough
To spill their blood for truth alone
That one or two ideas survive, always survive
Writ in blood on paving stones

RINGMASTER
Writ in blood

MARIE MARIANNE
On paving stones

CHILDREN'S CHORUS
And the noble class who rule
Having been to all the best schools
Have thought it through and are good enough
To explain what is best for us
It came to them in a dream
In a blinding flash of light
Equality, fraternity and not just in the afterlife
And they promise us reading
And they promise us reading

CHILDREN'S CHORUS & FEMALE CHORUS
If we kneel before the King
If we kneel before the King

SOLO CHILD
So this is the State of France

RINGMASTER, REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST & MARIE MARIANNE
And on the street corners
The broadsheets all carry the usual story
A people dying to believe in some benign authority
To lead them down a road that’s paved with glory
To lead them down a road that’s paved with glory

Scene 5
"The Fall of the Bastille"

[13] RINGMASTER
Birds flock, when winter settles in
The Harlequin with dunce's cap and silver horn
All mournful, mocking eye and painted tear,
Has seen it all before
The sparrows hurl in the face of glazed imperium,
Then stunned, affronted, fall
Then, picking up perch braggart on the wire and
Launch towards the south, towards the land of fire

[14] REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
To freeze in the dead of night
To burn in divine law
Deep in the crucible brine
The sorrow and the rage entwine
And coil and climb towards the light
The quill is poised above the page
Words like falling rain slake the thirst and dowse the flames
Cooling in the crucible and idea forms
A nugget of belief in the hearts of the poor
That maybe in the dawn's new light
They have a right to the law

[15] RINGMASTER
So to the streets in the pouring rain
The dispossessed and the drunk and the lame
Gathered in bands and took the law into their own hands
Like the daring young man on the flying trapeze
Like birds flying into a storm
They took the great leap
And launched themselves into the void

CHORUS
We broke into the arsenal, Les Invalides
Found cannonball and powder, everything we need
We marched on the Bastille
The home of tyranny
Killed the jailer
And set two madmen free

RINGMASTER
When you have an army of your own
You get to choose
Who will live
Who will die
Who will win
Who will lose

TROUBLEMAKER
A piece of prison stone
Is all I have to call my own
Insight to see the other side
Strength and weakness, love and pride
Is all I have to leave my child
If my child survives
He'll judge men by their deeds and not their smiles
He'll keep his taste of good red wine
His pride, his friends, his lust for life
These are the things that will avail him
If my child survives...

Curtain


ACT TWO

Scene 1
"Dances and Marches"

[16] RINGMASTER
Versailles the leaves fall
It's that time of the year
Her Majesty is bored with all
This endless calling for reform
But the sound of young men marching
Is like music to her ear
The sound of young men marching
Is like music to her ear
But she dreams of young men dancing

QUEEN
Dancing, dancing...

RINGMASTER
And the dream of young men dancing
Hangs like birdsong in the air

[17] Now Hear Ye!
Her Majesty invites the regiments
To a Grand Ball

Versailles in October
The Queen is having a fling
She invites all the regiments
Loyal to the King
Wining and dining and making eyes at them all
Smiling in the limelight
The Queen is having a ball

OFFICER
The Queen is smiling
The Queen is laughing
She makes eyes at one and all

CHORUS
She’s having a ball

[18] RINGMASTER
Flushed with wine Marie Antoinette
Casts down her red, white and blue rosette
An impetuous and dangerous vignette

OFFICER
And then with her harming little shoe
She grinds the precious symbol underfoot
what a lark, what a hoot
The regiments all follow suit
The regiments

CHORUS
The regiments

OFFICER
The regiments

CHORUS
The regiments

OFFICER & CHORUS
The regiments all follow suit

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Red, white and blue and they all follow suit

CHILDREN'S CHORUS
Red, white and blue and they all follow suit

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
In Paris there is nothing to eat

CHORUS
Not a crust, not a crumb
Not a grain of wheat

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
They think that starving may weaken the man in the street

CHORUS
Not a chance, they're used to the heat

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
In Versailles they drink wine and dine on freshly baked bread

CHORUS
The peacock sprawls upon his bed

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
We choke on the bones of swallowed pride instead

CHORUS
Soon they'll see what a feast they've made

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
A bitter feast

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST & CHORUS
For the Parisians

CHORUS
...for the Parisians

RINGMASTER
These hags, these shrews, these courtesans
These animals we call women
Have marched hear through the pouring rain
TO bring the baker home again

CHORUS
Louis protests; he cries

KING
Veto, veto! I'll give you all bread if you just let me go!

RINGMASTER
These fishwives with their babies, these animals called ladies
Will carry back home to Paris
The King, The Queen, and The Dauphin

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Versailles has loomed to the regiments' final bow

CHORUS
Versailles bloomed

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
All fawning before

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST & CHILDREN'S CHORUS
The Austrian cow!

CHORUS
Fawning on bended knee

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
The party's over

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST & CHILDREN'S CHORUS
Take down the marquee

CHORUS
Hang up your dancing shoes in the hanging tree

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
We'll take the baker back to Paris

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST & CHILDREN'S CHORUS
Back to Paris

TROUBLEMAKER & MALE CHORUS
He'll make bread for the prince we decree

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST, CHILDREN'S CHORUS, & FEMALE CHORUS
The shrews, the hags and the courtesans

TROUBLEMAKER & MALE CHORUS
The animals we call women

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST, CHILDREN'S CHORUS, & FEMALE CHORUS
Will take back the King to Paris

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST & CHILDREN'S CHORUS
The crowd now seven thousand strong

TROUBLEMAKER & MALE CHORUS
Bore the royal coach along

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST & CHILDREN'S CHORUS
With trophies raised on pikes above

TROUBLEMAKER & MALE CHORUS
The guardsman’s heads they had cut off

TROUBLEMAKER
Adieu Versailles

MALE CHORUS
It rains, it pours, the crowd roars

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Bonjour Paris

CHORUS
Adieu Versailles

COMPANY
Bonjour Paris, adieu Versailles

Scene 2
"The Letter"

[19] RINGMASTER
Imprisoned in the Tuilaries
The King makes locks
To the sound of the ticking clocks
And the rain falling on his window pane
Makes him think of his cousin Bourbon
Safe in his castle in Spain

[20] KING
My Dear Cousin Bourbon of Spain
This letter I entrust to a courier faithful and sure
Is to calm your fears and tell you cousin dear
My heart is pure
This red cap I wear,
These lies they've made me swear
Are repugnant to my soul
My very bones cry out in pain
Cousin Bourbon of Spain
You know my feelings well
You've heard what I've had to say
But now all my beliefs
Have been snatched by these thieves
And cruelly torn away
But none of the scum who run through the streets
Taking law from a bottle of wine
Could presume to assume the fealty due
To me or to you from your subjects or Mine
My dear cousin Bourbon n of Spain
Let's make a pact, let's campaign
Let us whip back to their kennels again
These dogs who speak of virtue
Help me, cousin
Help me cousin Bourbon of Spain

[21] RINGMASTER
The ship of state is all at sea
The King is confused
'Tis hard enough to place one foot before the last
To tread a path preordained by a law divine
But to pad all aimless on a shifting sea
Each man an island free to choose his fate
God's death; what dizzy, giddy, fall from grace...
Commerce, that barometer of faith
Tolls warning of the coming storm
No coffee in the marketplace
No peace on earth for rich or poor

Scene 3
"Silver, Sugar and Indigo"

[22] TROUBLEMAKER
How can you sleep?
How can you think?
How can you live with no coffee to drink?
You'd better pray you don't have a sweet tooth
The price of sugar is through the roof
Robespierre, Brissot and Concordant all agree
We must set the blackbird free
But sugar and silver and indigo
Make even the wisest man "idiot!"

[23] REVOLUTIONARY SLAVE
To the Windward Isles

REVOLUTIONARY SLAVE & CHORUS
It comes today

REVOLUTIONARY SLAVE
The wind of change blows this way

REVOLUTIONARY SLAVE & CHORUS
Blows this way

REVOLUTIONARY SLAVE
In Sante Domingo and elsewhere
To slaves of sugar and despair

REVOLUTIONARY SLAVE & CHORUS
Silver, sugar, indigo
Silver, sugar, indigo
Silver, sugar, indigo
Silver, sugar, indigo
Silver, sugar, indigo
Silver, sugar, indigo
Silver, sugar, indigo
Silver, sugar, indigo
Make even the wisest man "idiot!"
Make even the wisest man "idiot!"

REVOLUTIONARY SLAVE
Bring freedom to the

REVOLUTIONARY SLAVE & CHORUS
Colonies
Act on principle

REVOLUTIONARY SLAVE
Equality, fraternity and

REVOLUTIONARY SLAVE & CHORUS
Liberty

REVOLUTIONARY SLAVE
Are

REVOLUTIONARY SLAVE & CHORUS
Not just words after all

REVOLUTIONARY SLAVE
But

REVOLUTIONARY SLAVE & CHORUS
Sugar is sweet

REVOLUTIONARY SLAVE
And

REVOLUTIONARY SLAVE & CHORUS
Coffee is strong
Hope goes down with the sun

REVOLUTIONARY SLAVE
And

REVOLUTIONARY SLAVE & CHORUS
The sun goes down behind

CONDORCET & MARIE MARIANNE
Mountains of silver
Valleys of sugar
And shiploads of indigo
Make even the wisest man "idiot!"

REVOLUTIONARY SLAVE & CHORUS
Make even the wisest man "idiot!"

MARIE MARIANNE
So come ye ships
Across the sea
Let's case into the deep
This shame and misery
In Paris they condemn our rage
Condorcet stands his ground and says:

CONDORCET
My friends if we believe in freedom
Then we must unlock this cage

COMPANY
Vive Condorcet, hear him scold them,
The frigid reactionary old men
Good God above it's over
Enough is enough
Enough, enough, enough
To the Windward Isles
Revolution has arrived
They will only free us when
They need us to fight for them

CONDORCET & MARIE MARIANNE
Cast into the deep sea
This shame and this misery
Silver, sugar and indigo
Make even the wisest man "idiot!"

CHORUS
Make even the wisest man "idiot!"

COMPANY
"Idiot!"

Scene 4
"The Papal Edict"

[24] RINGMASTER
Trade wings, buffeting the sweet molasses
Smoke of burning cane
Push, swelling East the spreading ripples of unrest,
Back to Europe and the rain
The Holy See safe on Tiber's shore
Surveys the flotsam on the tide
Ignores the cries of drowning men and
Passes on the other side

[25] TROUBLEMAKER
In Paris there's a rumble under the ground
It's the sound of the printing press
And like a volcano when it blows
It spews out ideas like confetti, like snow

BOY
Read all about it!
Hold the front page!
The street's a theatre
Each café...

CHORUS & CHILDREN
A stage!

RINGMASTER
But under every café awning
There appears this papal warning

TROUBLEMAKER
His Holiness the Pope, I fear
Believes the Rights of Man to be a bad idea

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
The pope does not want the rights of Man

COMPANY
The pope does not want the rights of Man

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
He finds them too profane

COMPANY
He finds them too profane

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
When a man bites the apple

COMPANY
When a man bites the apple

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
He gets a taste for liberty

COMPANY
He gets a taste for liberty

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
He gets... a taste of liberty

MALE CHORUS
He gets... a taste of liberty

ALTAR BOY
The Pope declares that it's a sin

MALE CHORUS
The pope declares that it's a sin

TROUBLEMAKER
So let us raid the apple tree
Although the Pope does not agree
He blesses us with sleight of hand
He doesn’t want the Rights of Man

ALTAR BOY
The Pope declares that it's a sin

MALE CHORUS
The Pope declares that it's a sin

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
The Pope declares that it's... a sin
People are sharing the apples
The Pope says Bless You but it's still a sin

COMPANY
The Pope says Bless You but it's still a sin

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
The Pope gives his blessing with sleight of hand

COMPANY
The Pope gives his blessing with sleight of hand

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
He doesn't want the

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST & MALE CHORUS
Rights... of Man

ALTAR BOY
The Pope declares that it's a sin

MALE CHORUS
The Pope declares that it's a sin

TROUBLEMAKER
But the Pop can change his mind like that
Like trying on a different hat
Turning on the stars above and politics and God and love
Turning like an apple that shrivels on the sand
And when the core is rotten
No one tastes the Rights of Man

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
You never taste the Rights of Man...

CHORUS
He does not want the Rights of Man
The Pope does not want the Rights of Man
He's made his stand
He washes his hands
The Pope does not... want the Rights of Man

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Nothing but a prayer to hope for
Nothing but a little wine to dream
Nothing for this hunger but a handful of grain
The horizon always the same

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST & TROUBLEMAKER
Rooted in this earth
Like our parents dead and gone
Like the trees which are our emblem
The horizon just goes on and on
We'll change it with a forest

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST, TROUBLEMAKER & CHORUS
The olive and the oak tree
Will be our flags

Curtain

[Disk 2]

ACT THREE

Scene 1
"The Fugitive King"

[1] RINGMASTER
And high above,
Homing in the restless sky,
Rooks, melancholy, proclaim a schism between
God, sacred, and the Crown, profane
Between the heavens and the King
The dark horizon cracks a crooked grin,
Admitting one small grain of change
Then two, then four, then bit by bit,
Then tock by tick
All the old presumptions hove in rings

KING
The King is afraid that his kingdom is slipping away

QUEEN
The Queen pines for the good times at Versailles

KING
He works on his locks to the sound of the ticking of clocks

QUEEN
The children play in a garden that's ringed with steel

KING
They wanted to visit St. Cloud to be able to

KING & QUEEN
Breathe in the air

OFFICER
The National Guard forbad them to leave

[2] KING & QUEEN
But the Marquis of Boulli had a trump card up his sleeve

RINGMASTER
The Marquis of Boulli a good General
And fiercely loyal to the crown
With his army in the East
Hatched a plan to see the King released

QUEEN
The Queen assuming the title Baroness Korrf
Her papers signed by the King of course
Set forth before the break of day
To join up with Boulli in Alsace Lorraine

OFFICER
From the shadows King Louis disguised as a humble valet
Sneaks out to make his getaway
With a small entourage of course

OFFICER & CHORUS
Just a few hundred light horse

TROUBLEMAKER
Well let him go, let him run, with his Austrian whore

TROUBLEMAKER & MALE CHORUS
Let him go to Prussia

OFFICER & MALE CHORUS
Let him go to Austria
Let him go and die there

TROUBLEMAKER & MALE CHORUS
Let him go

OFFICER & MALE CHORUS
Let him go

TROUBLEMAKER, OFFICER & MALE CHORUS
Let him rot wit his Austrian Queen

CHORUS
That the Republic at last can come into being
But wait, fate would intervene

OFFICER
A keen-eyed postmaster by chance

OFFICER & CHORUS
Recognized the King and Queen and

CHORUS
Rode ahead to raise the alarm

RINGMASTER
In Parliament the moderates have their say

CONDORCET
The King has not fled
He was kidnapped instead
And spirited away

OFFICER
To suggest that the King would run is a damnable lie

CONDORCET
It sticks in our throats and conflicts with our national pride

OFFICER
But the Austrian court
And Brunswick of course
Say they'll declare war
If the King's not restored

TROUBLEMAKER (mimicking Brunswick)
You must leave the King alone
Or all of Paris will be torn down
Down to the very last stone

TROUBLEMAKER & OFFICER
Paris will be pulverized
Down to the very last bone

QUEEN
When the carriage returned
The acrid smoke of bridges burned
Hung heavy like a stifled sigh
And they say the Queen had a tear in here eye

OFFICER
When through the carriage window
Louis turned to face his peers
A loyal friend, the Comte de Dampierre
Doffed his cap with elegance
In deference to the King
A brave and foolish thing to do
In light o f the prevailing mood

CHORUS
A few drops in her eye
A nice touch, a good try
Too little, too late
For a last roll of the die

RINGMASTER & CHORUS
The crowd in a gesture less than elegant
Brutally remove his head

RINGMASTER
Brutally remove his head

CHORUS
Brutally remove his head

[3] CHILDREN'S CHORUS
To take your hat off
Is the gesture of a toff
But even his lordship needs a head
To take his hat off of
So Dampierre lost his life
By being somewhat too polite
In face of all the pain and fear that festered
For more than a thousand years

SERGEANT (off stage)
By the left, Quick March!

CHILDREN'S CHORUS
Dampierre has lost his head
The King has lost his grown
The carriage rolls through the streets
The crowd jeers, the wheels squeak
Hey, hey, what goes around
Always comes around

MALE CHORUS
IN Germany and England
They celebrate our liberty
Over there by and by
They'll have their 14th of July
In Germany and England they fete our

MALE CHORUS & CHILDREN
Liberty

OFFICER
The National Assembly try to whitewash the King

MALE CHORUS
His brothers in law
Are camped on every border
They fear to depose him
Would men war

MARIE MARIANNE, RINGMASTER, OFFICER & CHORUS
But feelings run deep
And the man in the street
Hungry, weak but unbowed
Scents the taste so sweet of peacock meat
As it wafts over the crowd
So they march to the Camps du Mars
To demand Republic now

CHILDREN'S CHORUS
Republic here, now, today
The National Assembly
Has got it wrong

SERGEANT
Present...

CHILDREN'S CHORUS
We sing in the Camps du Mars

SERGEANT
Take Aim...

CHILDREN'S CHORUS
We sing of what we want

SERGEANT
FIRE!

CHILDREN'S CHORUS
Repub--

[4] RINGMASTER
The echoes never fade from the fusillade
Lafayette fired upon
An unarmed crowd, six thousand strong
The fragile ship of State
Sinks beneath the waves
The crashing sea of blood
Drowns out the sound of the parade
The tidied up the Camps du Mars
They piled up the dead
The dead whose only crime had been
To dream of freedom
The dead who'd never get to see
The King would be restored instead

Scene 2
"The Commune De Paris"

[5] RINGMASTER
The Monarchy restored
The crown sits tilted and uneasy now
The Girondins, one eye cocked nervous in the East,
Are loath to bring it down

TROUBLEMAKER
But at the gates
Beyond the palsied grip of limp and timid politics
The Marseillais are girded for the fray
With pike and pick and bloodied stick
They'll plant the laurel tree
And their song will be a fanfare for the Commune de Paris...

[6] MALE CHORUS
Vive la Commune De Paris
For the love of God
IN the name of freedom
For the crippled and the poor

RINGMASTER
The bells ring out the tambourine beats
The rise and fall of voices
The sound of marching feet
Signals the demise of the Capet dynasty

TROUBLEMAKER
It's not whether now but when
The King and Queen have only men
From Switzerland to defend the Tuileries
Remorseless as a rising tide
The san culottes prepare to die
Vive la Commune de Paris

CHORUS
Vive la Commune de Paris
Vive la Commune de Paris
Vive la Commune de Paris
Vive la Commune de Paris
Vive la Commune de Paris
Vive la Commune de Paris
Vive la Commune de Paris
Vive la Commune de Paris
Vive la Commune de Paris

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Vive la Commune de Paris in God's name

CHORUS
In God's name

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Vive la Commune de Paris
For the

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST & CHORUS
Halt and the maimed

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Who have no Pope and no hope of paradise

CHORUS
No hope of paradise

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
And nothing to lose but their miserable earthly lives...

CHORUS
Nothing to lose but their lives

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Everyone under the sun has the power
To change the way the world is arranged

MALE CHORUS
If you don't use it
The powers that be will abuse it
Give up but half of our power
And you'll get shafted

CHORUS
Vi......ve la Commune de Paris

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST & CHORUS
Vive la, vive la, viva la Commune
Vive la, vive la, viva la Commune de Paris

[7] RINGMASTER
The National Assembly is confused
The Girondins blow back and forth
Like flags and ashes scattered by the truth

BOY
Oi, Mister... What is a Girondid?

RINGMASTER
A Girondin is careful of the company he keeps
He looks to find a sign before he leaps

TROUBLEMAKER
Like ranks of Marseillaise, six hundred deep
Arraigned before the Tuileries

CHORUS
It's the end of monarchy
Vive la Commune de Paris!

RINGMASTER
The presence of the Prussians on the border
IS a worrisome thing
The Brunswick manifesto
Serves only to stiffen the sinews
And weaken the King
To depose him now
Fills the Girondid hearts with fear
But the Prussians cross the border
And the order of the day becomes clear

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST & CHILDREN'S CHORUS
The monarchy is over
No more days in clover

CHORUS
The monarchy, c'est fini

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST & CHILDREN'S CHORUS
Brunswick is a liar; just listen to our cannon fire

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
The National Assembly comes in line
With the half and the maimed
And the dead and the dying
The monarchy, c'est fini

Scene 3
"The Execution of Louis Capet"

[8] RINGMASTER
In the spring of ninety-two
The Austrians and the Prussians too
Crossed the line
The war had come
The people went to see the King
Reluctantly he let them in

RINGMASTER & CHORUS
And over tea they said that
He must choose one hat

RINGMASTER
A crown in Koblenz with his friends
Or if he chose to make amends
He might adopt

CHORUS
He might adopt

RINGMASTER & CHORUS
Their scarlet bonnet

RINGMASTER
Surprise, surprise, when left to choose
Too late he chose "The Bonnet Rouge"

[9] MARIE MARIANNE
Adieu Louis for you it's over
Too many carpenters and bookkeepers and gardeners
Gave their ordinary lives to be free
On the battlefields of the Tuileries

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
To be King is a sacred trust
But you betrayed us
Poor King Louis
We must take your life
Clean the slate, start anew
Poor Louis, it's over for you

TROUBLEMAKER
The time for grief is not yet here
It’s to build a world without tears
That we toll the funeral bell
And shed our precious blood
Poor Louis and your precious blood as well

CHILDREN'S CHORUS
Poor King Louis, you'll soon be dead
Poor King Louis, far from your bed

TROUBLEMAKER
Far from your bed

CHILDREN'S CHORUS
Life must always end to start anew

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Poor King Louis
It's over for you!

QUEEN
It's always the terror you can rely on
To eat its way into your heart
Like rust and there to spy on
The blood, the blade, the speeches made
That mingle in your very entrails

Scene 4
"Marie Antoinette - The Last Night on Earth"

[10] RINGMASTER
The widow now bereft, abhorred
Counts numbered fays the summer long
In Temple Prison with her spawn
On pretext of 'unnatural acts'
With jests and jibes and guile and facts
The 'sans culottes' prune the tree
Now a sister to the dispossessed
The halt, like maimed and all the rest
Like a leaf on a pitiless sea
Shorn of family and rank
Humbled in the dank air
She mingles with the dancers macabre
And the ghostly dancers twirl
In that dread minuet
And beggar the illusions of that little Austrian Girl

[11] QUEEN
Adieu my good and tender sister
I am condemned to die
My only regret is to abandon my children
My children, my God, how it tears me to leave them
My love for them was always first and last
My God, I miss my children so

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Madame Antoine, if we could only turn back the clock
TO that garden in Vienna

MARIE THERESE & FEMALE CHORUS
Madame Antoine, Madame Antoine,
Mother is calling, darkness is falling

QUEEN
Monsieur, I know thee not

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
The oak tree without and the peach tree within
Your mother was calling
The darkness was falling

QUEEN
MY little cock robin pray kneel here beside me
The dance is about to begin

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Courage Madame, in this great rebirth
Like wind-fallen fruit we return to the earth

QUEEN
I saw but a priest

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
I am but a man
Madame, please take my hand

QUEEN
Monsieur, please take my hand

Scene 5
"Liberty"

[12] TROUBLEMAKER
We want to get rid of the Guillotine
And abolish pain somehow
But to make a world free of tears
We build these scaffolds now

OFFICER
Come dry your tears and pray explain
How can we abolish pain?
If we don't build these scaffolds now
These instruments of injustice
These tools of execution

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
We've given to the Guillotine
More blood than you have ever seen
What end could justify these means?

OFFICER
We've given more of our blood

MALE CHORUS
We've given

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
We've given more of our blood

MALE CHORUS
We've given

OFFICER
We've given more of our blood

MALE CHORUS
More of our blood

CHORUS
We've given, we've given
More blood than we could turn to love

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST & OFFICER
Than we could ever hope to turn to

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Love

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST & OFFICER
More blood, than we could
Ever hope could turn to love

CHORUS
We've given, we've given
More blood, than we could turn to love

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Come angles of mercy
Come doves of peace
Shine a light on all these warring clubs and cliques

OFFICER
The jackal and hyena who prowl these city streets
Would turn in their own mother for a little extra meat

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
From the piles of dead the Republic comes to life
Her mutilated body reeling like a drunken fishwife
Gives birth to the future

OFFICER
Gives birth on the street

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST, OFFICER & CHORUS
Impure and exultant she gives birth to the dream

RINGMASTER & MARIE MARIANNE
When the dream

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
When the dream

RINGMASTER & MARIE MARIANNE
Is understood

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Is understood

RINGMASTER, REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST & MARIE MARIANNE
That no man should live in chains
That the great and the small are equal after all

[13] RINGMASTER
And in the bushes where they survive
The winder hail and the slaughter
The birds were attacked by the dogs and the rats
Hiding round every corner

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
When you're a rat caught in a trap with not even cheese you get mean

CHILDREN'S CHORUS
But we are not rats

OFFICER
When you're a rabid dog you need to spread your disease

CHILDREN'S CHORUS
But we are not dogs

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST & OFFICER
When you're a man and they say you should be an angel

CHILDREN'S CHORUS
We're not even human

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
When you're less than nothing

OFFICER & MALE CHORUS
Less than nothing

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST, OFFICER & CHILDREN'S CHORUS
Less than nothing as sure as the sparrows sing

MARIE MARIANNE
If wishes give us power to make it all come right
If we could walk through mirrors
IF we could touch the light
We'd shrug off our illusions and what was left would be
Te strength and bravery
To feel what we feel
And be what we'd be...

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Of all the woman none can hold a light to liberty

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST & CHORUS
With wings to fly and eyes to see

TROUBLEMAKER & CHORUS
She's the one who loves us
The one that we adore
When you're laughing with the sun out
Or lying wounded in a dug out

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
With wings to fly and eyes to see
Freedom is her name

OFFICER
She makes a fearsome ally
If you stand up with no shame

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
But liberty is nothing if you love her on your knees

OFFICER & MALE CHORUS
And liberty can't hear you when you're hanging from an olive tree!

RINGMASTER
If we don't founder in pursuit luxury
In forgetfulness of others needs
And in the depths of our own believes

MARIE MARIANNE
If we don't hide in that solitary dream
Safe in our shells
In respect for the powers that be
And in fear of our selves

CHILDREN'S CHORUS
If wishes could come true
If mirrors could be seen through
No more mystery
Only the strength and bravery
To help one another
To see what its like to be...
Happy!
No bird needs to be afraid
To leave his nest and to parade
Up and down the boulevard all day,
All day, all day!
No bird must be greedy
And eat up all the seed
'Til every bird has had enough,
Every bird
Be he rich or be he poor
Be he great or be he small
Every bird, every bird, every bird, every bird
Will go to the ball

RINGMASTER
If this life's a journey we take

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
If the secret the sharing cake

MARIE MARIANNE
Holds the key, holds the key to joy

RINGMASTER
And unlocks these doors inside

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Where Republic must surely hide

MARIE MARIANNE
If wishes really could come true

RINGMASTER
If we see through the illusions

REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST & CHORUS
And abide by the constitution

MARIE MARIANNE
There'll be human rights for everyone

CHORUS
Unique and universal

COMPANY
For everyone
Under the sun!

RINGMASTER, REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST, MARIE MARIANNE, TROUBLEMAKER & OFFICER
If we are not lost in these towers of ivory
In respect for the strong
And in fear of our need to belong
The promise of Republic lies within
Ça Ira

COMPANY
Ça Ira!

Curtain

 

{Many thanks to Zechariah for typing and submitting the lyrics to this site.]