Ópera Romeo et Juliette - Quatrième Acte

First tableau

(Juliet's chamber
It's still night. The scene is lit
by a torch. Juliet is sitting; Romeo
is at her feet.)

JULIET
Go! I have forgiven you,
Tybalt wanted your death!
If he hadn't succumbed, you would have succumbed yourself!
Away from me the pain! away from me the remorse!
He hated you and I love you!

ROMEO
Ah! say it again, say it again, that sweet word!

JULIET
I love you, oh Romeo! I love you,
Oh my husband!

ROMEO AND JULIET
Wedding night!
Oh sweet night of love!
Destiny
Binds me to you irrevocably.
Oh delight of living!
Oh all-powerful charms!
Your sweet gaze intoxicates me,
Your voice delights my senses!
Under your fiery kisses
The sky shines within me!
I have given you my soul,
To you, always to you!

(The first light of day
illuminates the stained glass window.
A lark is heard singing.)

JULIET
Romeo! What's wrong?

ROMEO
(rising)
Listen, oh Juliet!
The lark already announces the day!

JULIET
No, no, it's not day, it's not the lark
Whose song struck your anxious ear,
It's the sweet nightingale, love's confidant!

ROMEO
It's the lark, alas! messenger of the day!
See those jealous rays with which the horizon gilds itself;
The torches of the night pale, and the dawn
In the mists of the East
Rises smiling!

JULIET
No, no, it's not day, this ominous light
Is only the sweet reflection of the beautiful star of the nights!
Stay! Stay!

ROMEO
Ah! let death come! I stay!

JULIET
Ah! you speak true, it is day!
Go, you must leave your Juliet!

ROMEO
No! no! it's not day!
It's not the lark!
It's the sweet nightingale, love's confidant!

JULIET
It's the lark, alas! messenger of the day!
Go! my life!

ROMEO
One kiss, and I go!

JULIET
Cruel law! cruel law!

ROMEO
Ah! stay! stay in my embraced arms!
Stay still! one day it will be sweet for our faithful love
To remember these past torments.

JULIET
We must leave, alas!
We must leave these arms
Where I hold you,
And tear you away from this ardent intoxication!

ROMEO
We must leave, alas!
We must leave these arms
Where she holds me
And tear me away from this ardent intoxication!

ROMEO AND JULIET
Ah! the fate that separates me from you,
More than death is cruel and barbaric!
We must leave, alas!
We must leave these arms
Where she holds me/I hold you
and it's over/torn away from this ardent intoxication!

ROMEO
Farewell! my Juliet! farewell!...

JULIET
Farewell!...

ROMEO AND JULIET
... always to you!

JULIET
Farewell! my soul! farewell my life!
Angels of heaven! I entrust you to them!

GERTRUDE
(entering in great agitation)
Juliet!
(reassuring herself)
Ah! thank heaven!
Your husband has left! here is your father!

JULIET
God! could he know?

GERTRUDE
Nothing! nothing, I hope!
Friar Laurence follows him!

JULIET
Lord! protect us!

(Capulet enters followed by Friar Laurence.)

CAPULET
What! my daughter, the night has barely ended,
And your eyes are open,
and you are already up!
Alas! our worry, I see, is the same,
And the same regrets hasten our awakening!
May the nuptial hymn succeed the cries of alarm!
Faithful to the last wish that Tybalt formed,
Receive from him the husband his mouth named,
Smile amidst your tears!

JULIET
This husband... who is he?

CAPULET
The bravest of all,
Count Paris!

JULIET
(apart)
God!

FRIAR LAURENCE
(quietly, to Juliet)
Silence!

GERTRUDE AND FRIAR LAURENCE
Calm down! Calm down!

CAPULET
The altar is prepared, Paris has my word,
Be united without waiting until tomorrow!
May Tybalt's shadow, present at this union,
Finally calm down and console you.
The will of the dead,
like that of God himself,
Is a holy law, a supreme law!
We must respect the will of the dead!

JULIET
(for herself)
Do not fear, Romeo, my heart is without remorse!

GERTRUDE
Let the dead rest in peace in their tomb!

CAPULET
We must respect the will of the dead!

FRIAR LAURENCE
(for himself)
She trembles, and my heart shares her remorse!

CAPULET
Friar Laurence will dictate your duty.
Our friends will come, I will receive them.

(He exits, followed by Gertrude.)

JULIET
(to Friar Laurence)
My father! everything overwhelms me! all is lost!
I, to obey you,
Have hidden my despair and my guilty love;
It is up to you to help me,
to rescue me from my miserable fate!
Speak, my father, speak! or else I am ready to die!

FRIAR LAURENCE
So, death does not trouble your soul?

JULIET
No! no! rather death than this infamous lie!

FRIAR LAURENCE
Then drink this potion:
And from your limbs to your heart
A cold languor will suddenly spread,
An image of false death.
In your veins the blood will suddenly stop,
Soon a livid paleness will erase
The roses of your face;
Your eyes will be closed as in death!
In vain will the cries of alarm then burst forth,
'She is no more!' your companions will say in tears,
And the angels of heaven will answer:
'She sleeps!'
It is there that after a day your body and your soul,
As from a dead hearth the flame revives,
Will finally emerge from this heavy sleep;
Protected by the shadows, your husband and I
Will watch for your awakening
And you will flee into the arms of the one who loves you!
Do you hesitate?

JULIET
(taking the vial)
No! No! I entrust my life to your hand!

FRIAR LAURENCE
Until tomorrow!

JULIET
Until tomorrow!

(Friar Laurence exits.)

God! what shiver runs through my veins?
If this potion had no power!
Vain fears!
I will not belong to the Count against my will!
No! no! this dagger will guard my faith!
Come! come! Love, revive my courage,
And drive away the fear from my heart!
To hesitate is an insult to you,
To tremble is a lack of faith!
Pour! pour! Pour this potion yourself!
Ah! Pour this potion! Oh Romeo! I drink to you!
But if tomorrow yet in these funereal vaults
I awaken before his return? Almighty God!
This horrible thought has chilled all my blood!
What will become of me in these shadows
In this abode of death and lamentations,
Which past centuries have filled with bones?
Where Tybalt, still bleeding from his wound,
Near me, in the dark night will sleep!
God, my hand
will meet his hand!

(Troubled as if she sees Tybalt's ghost)

What is this shadow escaped from death?
It's Tybalt! he calls me! he wants to remove my husband from my path!
And his fatal sword;
No! ghosts! Disappear!
Vanish, fatal dream!
Let the dawn of happiness rise
Over the shadow of past torments!
Ah, Love, revive my courage,
And drive away the fear from my heart!
To hesitate is an insult to you,
To tremble is a lack of faith!
Pour! pour! Pour this potion yourself!
Ah! Pour this potion! Oh Romeo! I drink to you!

Second Tableau

(A gallery of the palace.
At the back, the doors of the chapel.
Wedding procession. An organ prelude
is heard; the doors of the chapel open;
a procession of clerics and choir boys
enter the scene.)

JULIET
Ah! I tremble! Unhappy!
Rigorous law!
Oh mortal dread!
His tenderness has ravished me!
Oh rigorous law!
Mortal dread!
He alone is my life,
To him my faith,
The pitiless fate has separated him from me!

GERTRUDE
Rigorous law!
Oh mortal dread!
Oh Juliet, unhappy!
Hope is taken from you,
Resign yourself to life's woes!
Of the implacable fate
We must endure the law!

PARIS, CAPULET, CHOIR
Oh Juliet, be happy!
My/His loving soul
Submits to your law! Oh Juliet, be happy!
See my/His loving soul
Submits to your law!
When God himself invites you,
Smile at the life that opens to you!
My/His heart forever will pledge you his faith!

FRIAR LAURENCE
Oh Juliet! Your soul can believe in me!
Oh Juliet! Be happy!
Your loving soul can believe in me!
When God himself invites you
Ah! smile at the life that opens to you!
Your soul can believe in me.
The heavens protect you and will watch over you!

CHOIR
Oh Juliet! Be happy!
Her loving soul submits to your law!
Her heart forever will pledge you his faith!

CAPULET
My daughter, yield to the views of the fiancé who loves you!
Heaven will unite us by eternal bonds!
From this blessed union here is the supreme moment!
Happiness awaits you at the foot of the holy altars!

(Paris advances and prepares to place
his ring on Juliet's finger.)

JULIET
(taking back her hand and half-voice as in a dream)
Hatred is the cradle of this fatal love!
Let the coffin be my nuptial bed!

(She puts her hand to her head and removes her
bridal crown; her hair unravels
and falls on her shoulders.)

CAPULET
Juliet! Come to yourself!

JULIET
Ah! support me! I stagger!

(She is surrounded and supported.)

What night surrounds me?
and what voice calls me?
Is it death? I am afraid! my father! farewell!

(She falls unconscious into the arms
of those surrounding her.)

CAPULET
(distracted)
Juliet! My daughter! ah!

(dismayed)
Dead!

ALL
Dead!

CAPULET
(with despair)
Dead!

ALL
Just God!