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APPENDIX

SONG - Rita

MIDI FILE [10KB, 2' 35"]

During the run of "The Chieftain", Inez's Act 1 song and the Fiesta del Amor were re-written by Sullivan. He also wrote a new song for Rita which, unlike those two pieces, did not appear in the revised vocal score and was probably not used in the show either. Nor does the music survive in the autograph score. However, a passage in Boyton Smith's "Fantasia on Airs from The Chieftain" is almost certainly the setting of these words, and from that this reconstruction has been prepared.

RITA:
A lady peers from a tower
Ere breaketh the dawn of day;
She marketh the rain clouds lower,
Say what doth her liege away?
"I see in the hills no sign!
A sign in the plain I see!"
She bends her ear
A step is near,
Can it her leige lord be?
But is it he?
Ah, we shall see!
Ah, we shall see!

A maiden peeps from her bower
Ere breaketh the dawn of day;
Her smile hath a witch-like power
For leading a man astray.
He presses her to his breast:
"A diamond bright for thee!
How good thou art!
Oh, heart to heart,
So might we ever be!"
Might ever be!
Ah, we shall see!
Ah, we shall see!

Her lord returns to the tower,
Hath faded the light of day;
Ah, well may he glare and glower:
"Thy lady hath gone away."
"Deceived! I will seek again
The bowery maid." Ah, me!
His place is ta'en
By another swain.
'Twixt two to the ground came he!
That's all there'll be
To hear from me!
That's all there'll be
To hear from me!
That's all there'll be
To hear from me!

Page created 26 October 2003