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(traffic hums)
("Cosi Fan Tutte"
by Wolfgang Mozart)
[Voiceover] This is
the story of three loves,
perhaps four.
The women were all sisters,
and I was the man
in their lives,
at least some of the time.
Their father was
my father's friend
and, so naturally,
when I went to Mannheim
to give concerts,
I stayed with them.
The father was a
fairly good musician.
In fact, they were all talented.
Especially the eldest, Louisa.
She had a lovely voice.
She sang like an angel.
Louisa.
Each of the daughters was
beautiful in her own way,
and I was a stranger
in a strange city.
I was young and alone, and
of course I fell in love.
It was like a tale from
The Arabian Nights,
a prince from another kingdom
and the three princesses
who vied for his love.
So, this is my story, our story,
an opera about love.
If you're not interested in love
and think you don't
like opera, well.
I'm not much for moralizing,
in my music even
less than in my life.
Music is its own meaning.
But sometimes people, you know,
are happier if they
think art is meaningful
rather than merely pleasureful.
So here it is at the beginning
for those among you
who are too impatient
to wait until the end to
find out what it's all about.
My philosophy of love.
A song, rich in intent,
profound in its implications,
as beautiful as it is deep.
("Die Entfhrung aus dem
Serail" by Wolfgang Mozart)
[Voiceover] He came
in the winter and, yes,
brought springtime
into everyone's life.
We all fell just a
little in love with him.
Of course, he was very young,
but he knew so much.
He helped me with my music
and taught me the
right way to sing.
Everyone said he was a genius.
He was certainly very gifted
and knew a great deal.
You know, he had been
performing and composing
almost from the time
he was an infant.
I became quite good.
[Voiceover] From the
first moment I saw him.
[Voiceover] I always
loved him, even as a child.
It was wonderful
loving him like that.
Knowing he could never
suspect my real feelings.
It was my secret.
("Die Zauberflote: Introduktion"
by Wolfgang Mozart)
[Voiceover] In a way, I
led a very sheltered life.
It's true, I was a raging success
in half a dozen countries
before I was 14.
I performed for the
most illustrious
crowned heads in Europe.
Women of all ages adored me.
They fussed over me.
They threw themselves at me.
It sounds like boasting, I know,
but there's no other
way to describe it.
Did you know that when
I was seven years old,
I proposed to Marie Antoinette,
who was also a child?
She agreed to marry me.
You don't believe
it, well, it's true.
I didn't lack for opportunities,
I can tell you that.
But, all the same, I
was still very innocent.
I was always falling in love.
It was like a chronic illness.
But what a delicious one.
Falling in and out of
love like a butterfly
going from flower to flower.
Every woman made my
heart beat faster.
("Le Nozze Di Figaro: Non
so piu cosa son" by Mozart)
[Voiceover] It was
perfect, the two of us.
He would write
beautiful songs for me,
and I would sing them.
His songs would become
famous through me.
I loved him, all of us did.
Under his guidance, my
voice improved tremendously.
[Voiceover] I
can hardly speak.
[Voiceover] I was always
the baby in the family.
How I hated it.
It was humiliating to be treated
like that in front of him.
Why can't time move faster,
and then the
differences in our ages
won't matter so much.
When he's 36, I'll be 28.
When he'll be 48, I'll be 40.
No, I'm not too young for him.
If only he'd wait for me.
("Cosi Fan Tutte: Ah
Guarda, Sorella" by Mozart)
[Voiceover] I'm so happy.
What do I know of love,
a strange sensation
that had no name?
Was this it?
Who could I turn to?
It's not so easy being young.
Could I trust them?
Could they tell me?
("Le Nozze Di Figaro"
by Wolfgang Mozart)
[Voiceover] I had never felt
anything like this before.
It was Louisa who touched the
most secret part of my heart.
She was my dream love.
("Cosi Fan Tutte: Un'aura
Amorosa" by Mozart)
To be in love again,
it was wonderful.
But this time it was true love.
("Die Zauberflote"
by Wolfgang Mozart)
[Voiceover] It always
happens that way.
The curse of being
the middle child.
The oldest has all
the good fortune.
The youngest is always pampered.
But what about me?
I felt as if my life were over.
("Cosi Fan Tutte: Ah, Che
Tutto In Un Momento" by Mozart)
Perhaps one has to
suffer for one's love.
To test it, to purify
it, to be worthy of it.
Perhaps agony is its
own sweet reward.
[Voiceover] There is no
reward for a troubled heart.
But who can guard themselves
against the pain of love?
We mustn't let this
come between us.
Even though we love
him, and she doesn't.
[Voiceover] I didn't
want it to happen this way.
How can I comfort
you, my dear sisters?
Would you believe
me if I told you
that your unhappiness
is only temporary?
In a month or two, you'll laugh,
thinking back on
your imagined grief.
Oh, I love you both so much.
(graceful operatic music)
I didn't ask for any of this.
It's not my fault
that he adores me.
I'm not to blame if I
can't return his love.
It's a gift I never asked for.
It was nothing more than
innocent flirtation.
I never encouraged him, never.
I didn't want it to
happen like this.
("Cosi Fan Tutte: Sento,
O Dio" by Wolfgang Mozart)
Perhaps I made a mistake
in turning him down.
Who would have thought that
he would become so famous?
That was on my mind
when I married.
That he would never
have enough money.
I wasn't mistaken, was I?
A pauper's grave.
To tell the truth, I didn't
think he was a genius.
With clever young
people, you never know
how they're going to turn out.
Maybe if I had?
What's the use of wondering?
I wouldn't have
done it differently,
even if I could.
My life is a happy one.
We became friends
again years later.
It was unavoidable.
But I think, at the time,
he took it very badly.
("Cosi Fan Tutte: Non Son
Cattivo Comico" by Mozart)
[Voiceover] I was in despair.
("Die Zauberflote" by Mozart)
I went away and didn't see
any of them for three years.
I thought that I
could learn to forget.
I threw myself into my work.
I forgot nothing.
(graceful operatic music)
[Voiceover] He left us.
He left me.
I know I'll never see him again.
How can I endure such anguish?
Can a heart withstand
such agony and not burst?
I don't know how I'll survive.
("Die Zauberflote: Ach,
ich fhl's" by Mozart)
[Voiceover] I
suffered too, my angel.
In my anguish, like a
thunderbolt from heaven,
I remembered you, my
darling Constanza.
Your name was prophetic.
How you looked at me
with love so tenderly,
with such shy modesty.
Could it be that
you loved me then,
and still love me?
Dare I hope?
Or must I continue
living in this abyss?
How could I have been so blind
as not to see what was
before me all the time?
("Die Zauberflote: Act
I Finale" by Mozart)
I thought of you night and day.
Being away from you was
like being in exile.
Deprived of my senses,
drifting in a void.
("Die Zauberflote: Wie
stark ist nicht" by Mozart)
I had to come back to
you, my dream woman.
("Die Zauberflote: Dies Bildnis
ist bezaubernd" by Mozart)
I had to woo you as if
it were not a ritual
I had acted out a
dozen times before.
[Voiceover] I had
to let you in me
as if it were not a
fantasy that I had dreamed
a thousand times before.
("Cosi Fan Tutte: Fra
Gil Amplesii" by Mozart)
[Voiceover] To love again.
Can I explain how
wonderful it is
to someone unfortunate
enough not to know?
("Die Zauberflote: Dies Bildnis
ist bezaubernd" by Mozart)
[Voiceover] He's
lost to me forever.
To know that and have the
courage to continue living.
Can I explain how painful it is
to someone fortunate
enough not to know?
("Le Nozze Di Figaro:
L'ho Perduta" by Mozart)
[Voiceover] My poor
darling, my poor Sophie.
She's so young, so vulnerable.
I've done nothing to hurt her,
but I know my joy is her grief.
Go to her, comfort her.
I have happiness to spare.
Come, my dear, come
and live with us.
("Le Nozze Di Figaro:
Cosa Mi Narri" by Mozart)
I'm so happy.
Fate has been kind to me.
Who would've dreamed?
I feel so sorry
for the poor thing.
We can't let this
or anything else
ever come between us.
We must comfort and
support each other always.
Yes.
Yes.
("Cosi Fan Tutte: Soave
Sia Il Vento" by Mozart)
[Voiceover] Could I
have foreseen how fragile
my own happiness was,
I would not have been so
generous with my pity.
("Cosi Fan Tutte: Fra
Gil Amplessi" by Mozart)
[Voiceover] Who
can understand it?
She loved me, I loved her.
Why did I always
think of Louisa?
It was her image which burned
like a red hot coal in my heart.
I adore her still.
I'm excited by the
thought of her,
knowing she can never be mine.
Or was this yet
another daydream?
Poor Constanza.
I would do anything
not to hurt her.
("Le Nozze Di Figaro: E
Susanna Non Vien" by Mozart)
[Voiceover] Her misery
gave me no pleasure.
Nor did it lighten my
burden or console me.
The only cure for me
would be his love.
And that would never be mine.
("Don Giovanni: Masetto,
Senti Un Po" by Mozart)
("Die Zauberflote: Ach,
ich fhl's" by Mozart)
("Cosi Fan Tutte:
Sento, O Dio" by Mozart)
What came of all
this useless suffering?
All this wasted love?
An opera about two sisters
played by two sisters.
(speaks foreign language)
Perhaps he wanted
have written the opera.
Cosi Fan Tutte in any event.
And if he hadn't,
certainly something else
would've been
written in its stead.
As for me, I prefer something
a little more modern.
We're just two little girls
From Little Rock
We live on the wrong
side of the tracks
But the gentlemen
friends who used to call
They never did
seem to mind at all
They came to
The wrong side of the tracks
There's someone broke my heart
In Little Rock
So I up and left
the pieces there
Like a little lost lamb
I roamed about
I came to New York
And I found out
That men
Are the same way everywhere
I was bound and determined
To be wined and
dined and ermined
And I worked at it
All around the clock
Now one of these days
In my fancy clothes
I'm goin' back home
And punch the nose
Of the one who broke my heart
The one who broke my heart
The one who broke my heart
In Little Rock,
Little Rock, Little Rock
Duh da dee da da dee da da
(laughing)
(graceful orchestral music)
[Voiceover] We were inextricably
bound to each other.
Would we all be chained
to this merry-go-round
for the rest of eternity?
Unless the circle
is somehow broken.
I can't bear this.
[Voiceover] Perhaps
like a Greek myth,
we'll merge into a
single shimmering star
and shoot off into
the darkest night
to illuminate a tiny
portion of the sky.
Or maybe we'll become,
the four of us,
a constellation in the sky
so that young lovers can look up
and see us there forever.
("Cosi Fan Tutte: Muoio
D'affano" by Mozart)
[Voiceover] How
unjust the gods are.
If only we could all
have what we wanted.
If everyone's dream
could've come true.
(graceful operatic music)
[Voiceover] If only I could
be sure that all this waiting
and yearning hasn't
been for nothing.
But if it was for a purpose,
what could that
purpose possibly be?
Perhaps it was enough
just to love in silence
without the love
being acknowledged.
Not unrequited love,
but unrecognized love.
Constanza loves him in her way.
But where is she now
that he needs her?
She is off nursing one
of her imaginary ailments
at the mineral bathes,
while he is dying.
I sit here and watch helplessly.
[Voiceover] I can feel its
cold hand on my shoulder.
If only I could live
a few more years.
No, I regret nothing.
There's nothing I
would've changed.
I lived for music.
Music is everything.
I lived for love.
Love, too, is everything.
("Die Zauberflote: Dies Bildnis
ist bezaubernd" by Mozart)
[Voiceover] Could
this be my reward?
To help ease your
journey into eternity,
where perhaps we
can be truly united,
just you and I,
who deserved each
other the most.
But what does deserving
have to do with any of it?
("Die Zauberflote: Ach,
ich fhl's" by Mozart)
("Les Noces de
Figaro" by Mozart)