SCENE VI
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Silla and guards.
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Recitative
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Silla
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Can I bear
|
||
such insolent scorn? Does not my soul grow turbulent
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with too much slighting? Who then has made her
|
||
so insensitive? Does a dictator
|
||
suffer himself thus to be insulted
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||
by a thoughtlessly bold woman?…
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And yet, shame on me, and yet she enchants me!
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Accompanied Recitative
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Enchants me?
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||
Does not Silla's heart yet blush
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||
for its own weakness?
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||
Then let love be silent, let the proud woman die.
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||
Who so despises my love,
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||
let her fear my rage.
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||
Let her long call me cruel, let her spurn
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||
my hand, my heart, my tenderness,
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from this day forward
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||
I am her tyrant!
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No. 5 Aria
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Silla
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||
The desire for vengeance and for death
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||
inflames me and so agitates my breast,
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||
that each tender feeling of the soul
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||
that has been scorned, is turned to wrath.
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||
Perhaps thou wilt at the end
|
||
of the fateful duel
|
||
beg that thy life be spared;
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||
yet tears will then be fruitless,
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||
and fruitless the anguish.
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||
(Exit with the guards.)
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Imposing, rather dark vestibule at the entrance to the subterranean chambers in which stand sumptious monuments to the Roman heroes. |
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SCENE VII
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Cecilio alone.
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Accompanied Recitative
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||
Cecilio
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||
Death, thou that shapest man's destiny,
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||
here in these cold graves lie
|
||
the witnesses of your hand. Heroes, warriors, potentates
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||
who laid waste the earth
|
||
are now covered and enclosed here beneath narrow marble walls.
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||
On countless lips
|
||
the world re-echoed marvelling at their deeds,
|
||
and now deep, gloomy silence clothes them round.
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||
Ye gods!… Who is approaching?
|
||
Giunia?… My dear betrothed?… Alas, she is not alone;
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||
I shall conceal myself… but where? Oh stars!
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||
How my heart beats!… What rapture I…
|
||
What shall I do?
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||
Remain?… Depart?… Oh heaven!
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||
I will hide myself behind this urn.
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||
(Hides behind Marius' urn.)
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||
SCENE VIII
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||
Giunia enters with her train of young women and nobles. Sadly they sing the following chorus.
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||
No. 6 Chorus
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||
Chorus
|
||
From these sorrowing urns
|
||
step forth, ye venerated souls,
|
||
and wrathfully avenge
|
||
the freedom of Rome.
|
||
Giunia
|
||
O beloved shade of my father,
|
||
that thou dost waft about me,
|
||
may my tears, my sighs
|
||
move thee to pity!
|
||
Chorus
|
||
Let the proud one who upon the Capitol
|
||
holds the reins of Rome in his hand,
|
||
this day be buried from his throne,
|
||
as fitting example to all the ages.
|
||
Accompanied Recitative
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||
Giunia
|
||
O father, since the godless Silla
|
||
aroused thy hatred while thou wast alive,
|
||
Giunia now stands, because she is thy daughter
|
||
and because Roman blood throbs in her veins,
|
||
with supplication before thy urn.
|
||
Thou too, adored shade
|
||
of my departed love, wend hither and aid
|
||
thy faithful bride. Far from thee
|
||
she loathes the doom-fraught air
|
||
of this bitter existence…
|
||
SCENE IX
|
||
Cecilio and the aforementioned.
|
||
Cecilio
|
||
Here am I, dearest one!
|
||
Giunia
|
||
Oh stars!… I quake!… What do I see?
|
||
Is it thou?… Is this perchance some fever?…
|
||
A ghost maybe, or truly thou?… Ye gods!
|
||
Dost thou deceive me, light of my eyes?…
|
||
Alas, could I but know
|
||
whether I am victim of some sweet illusion!…
|
||
So… is it thou?…
|
||
Cecilio
|
||
Thy faithful bridegroom. It is I.
|
||
No. 7 Duet
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||
Giunia
|
||
In Elysium await me,
|
||
shade of my dear love,
|
||
so that heaven soon, oh God, soon
|
||
may unite me to thee.
|
||
Cecilio
|
||
Adored, dear bride,
|
||
in thy sweet countenance alone
|
||
my faithful soul finds
|
||
sweet Elysium again.
|
||
Giunia
|
||
My bridegroom… Ye gods! Thou art yet alive?
|
||
Cecilio
|
||
Entire in faith and love.
|
||
Giunia and Cecilio
|
||
Joyous my sighs,
|
||
joyous my grief.
|
||
(Joining hands.)
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||
Giunia
|
||
Dear hope!
|
||
Cecilio
|
||
Beloved treasure!
|
||
Giunia and Cecilio
|
||
Now that upon my breast,
|
||
o Love, thou art,
|
||
the weeping of my eyes
|
||
teaches me rather
|
||
that joy too
|
||
has her tears.
|
||
(Exit.)
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||
End of the first act.
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