Roger Waters - ÇA IRA (THERE IS HOPE) 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 RĂŠpublique
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 RĂŠpublique!
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