AMNERIS:
Every story, tale or memoir
Every saga or romance
Whether true or fabricated
Whether planned or happenstance
Whether sweeping through the ages
Casting centuries aside
Or a hurried brief recital
Just a thirty-minute ride
Whether bright or melancholy
Rough and ready, finally styled
Whether with a thousand players
Or a lonely cast of one
Every story new or ancient
Bagatelle, or work of art
All are tales of human failing
All are tales of love at heart
This is the story of love that flourished in a time of hate
Of lovers no tyranny could separate
Love set into motion on the Nile shore
Destiny ignited by an act of war
Egypt saw the mighty river
As its very heart and soul
Source of life for all the people
That only Egypt could control
Destruction of a southern neighbor justified
Nubia exploited, left with little more than pride
MEN:
Oh Oh Oh...
Fortune favors the brave
Oh Oh Oh...
Fortune favors the brave!
RADAMES:
We have swept a glory
Egypt's mastery expands
From the Nile's northern Delta
To the dry dry southern sands
The more we find, the more we see,
The more we come to learn
The more that we explore
The more we shall return
MEN:
Oh Oh Oh...
Fortune favors the brave!
RADAMES:
It's all worked out, my road is clear
And I'm delighted to extend
Any of my wildest dreams
Toward some great triumphant end
We seize the day, we turn the tide,
We touch the stars, we mark the grave,
We move into uncharted lands
ALL:
Fortune favors the brave!
RADAMES:
The more we find, the more we see,
The more we come to learn
The more that we explore
The more we shall return
Nothing is an accident
We are free to have it all
We are what we want to be
It's in ourselves to rise or fall
This is easy to believe
When distant places come to me
It's harder from the palace yard
Fortune favors the free...
Oh Oh Oh...
Fortune favors the young...
Oh Oh Oh...
Fortune favors the brave!
You know nothing about me!
And care even less!
How could you understand
Our emptiness?
You plundered our wisdom,
Our knowledge, our wealth
In bleeding us dry
You long for our spirit
But that you will never possess!
The past is now another land
Far beyond my reach
Invaded by insidious
Foreign bodies, foreign speech
Where the timeless joys of childhood
Lie broken on the beach
The present is an empty space
Between the good and bad
A moment leading no where
Too pointless to be sad
But time enough to lay to waste
Every certainty I had
The future is a barren world
From which I can't return
Both pointless and material
It a wretched spoil
Not my concern
Shining like an evil sun
As my childhood treasures burn
Shining like an evil sun
As my childhood treasures burn
While you've been awake affording
Matters here have moved a pace
Now I need you home supporting
Of the plans I've put in place
First of all this means your wedding
You'll recall your future bride
For the way that Pharaoh's heading
Time's no longer on our side
According to the Hawk God Horus
Our most regal invalid
It's not that much longer for us
Build another pyramid
There are many who'll be tearful
As our leader fades away
But our architects are cheerful
And each dog much have its day
If our country is to flourish
Than my son must take the lead
Be our inspiration nourish
All our hopes, our dreams, our creed!
Soon our monarch will have filled the tomb
Just like his fathers did
Summon Egypt's greatest builder, me,
Another pyramid
Build it, Build it,
Another Pyramid
There will be a time for mourning,
But for now put plans on hold
For I give the nation warning
That before the corpse is cold
We'll extend fair Egypt's powers
Egypt's glory, strength and style
We shall our finest hour
Far beyond the mighty Nile
He must have a vault that's grand by
Any standards, floor to lid
Put five thousand slaves on standby
Build another pyramid
Build it, Build it,
Build it, Build it,
Build it
He must have a vault that's grand by
Any standards, floor to lid
Put five thousand slaves on standby
Build another pyramid
MEREB:
I grew up in your hometown... at least began to grow
I hadn't got to my first shave before the body blow
Egyptians in the courtyard, my family in chains
You witnessed our abduction which possibly explains
How I know you
How I know you
Before that fateful morning, my family enjoyed
A privileged existence, for my father was employed
As advisor to the king, no less, which surely rings a bell
For as you are his daughter, you probably can tell
How I know you
Yes, I know you
AIDA:
You know too much and what you say is better left unknown
And now I'm just a slave like you, our lives are not our own!
MEREB:
I never have abandoned, and nor, I think, could you
That spark of hope for freedom, no terror can subdue..
AIDA:
My only hope is silence, you've never seen my face
MEREB:
No.. you remain a princess, in any time or place.
AIDA: You don't know me!
SLAVE: Yes I know you
AIDA: You don't know me!
MEREB:
How I know you
How I know you
AMNERIS:
In life, one has to face a huge assortment
Of nauseating fads and good advice.
There's health and fitness, diet and deportment
And other pointless forms of sacrifice
Conversation? Wit? I am a doubter
Manners, charm, they're no way to impress
So forget the inner me, observe the outer
I am what I wear, and how I dress
(sung) Oh, now I believe in looking
Like my time on earth is cooking
Whether polka-dotted, striped ,or even checked
With some glamour guaranteein'
Every fiber of my bein'
Is displayed to quite remarkable effect
From your cradle via trousseau
To your death bed you're on view so
Never compromise accept no substitute
I would rather wear a barrel
Than conservative apparel
For a dress has always been
My strongest suit
GIRLS:
Overwear, underwear, anytime, anywhere
Overwear, underwear, anytime, anywhere
AMNERIS:
Staying in or hitting townwards,
From the top and working downwards
I ensure that every stitch is stitched in time
GIRLS: Is stitch is stitched in time!
AMNERIS:
Whether wig or hat or turban,
Whether clad boudoir or urban
Not to strut your stuff outrageously is a crime
GIRLS: Such a crime!
AMNERIS:
And the few who are invited
To my wardrobe are delighted
As they wander through my things to find en route
GIRLS: They're wanderin' through your things!
AMNERIS:
That in negligee or formal
I am anything but normal
A dress has always been my strongest suit
GIRLS:
Overwear, underwear, anytime, anywhere
Overwear, underwear, anytime, anywhere
Overwear, underwear, anytime, anywhere
Overwear, underwear, anytime, anywhere
AMNERIS: (Sung with chorus above)
I am what I wear, I say anytime, anywhere!
So bring me all my finest,
Most audacious, my divinest
Most revealing, most expensive and to boot
GIRLS:
Most revealing, most expensive, most arresting!
AMNERIS: Most arresting!
GIRLS: Most heart-stopping...
AMNERIS: Most heart-stopping!
Most free-flowing, most eye-popping
Most arresting, most heart-stopping yeah!
A dress has always been my strongest suit
GIRLS: I am what I wear
AMNERIS: My strongest suit!
GIRLS: I am what I wear
AMNERIS and GIRLS:
You know that I am what I wear!
AMNERIS:
A dress has always been my strongest suit!
So bring me all my finest,
Most audacious, my divinest
Most revealing, most expensive and to boot
Most arresting, most heart-stopping...
Most free-flowing, most eye-popping
A dress has always been my strongest suit! (I am what I wear)
My strongest suit! (I am what I wear)
You know that I am what I wear!
A dress has always been my strongest...
my strongest...
my strongest...
my strongest...
my strongest...
my strongest...
Suit!
RADAMES:
To sail away to half-discovered places
To see the secrets so few eyes have seen
To see moments of enchantment on our faces
The moments when we smile and those between
AIDA: (spoken) Are you talking about Nubia now?
RADAMES: (spoken) Yes, in a way...
AIDA:
If I could leave this place then I'd go sailing
To corners of my land where there would be
Sweet southern winds of liberty availing
A beauty so majestic and so free...
RADAMES: (spoken) I will take you sailing... south... you can be my
guide!
(sung) There'd be no ties of time and space to bind me...
AIDA:
And no horizon I could not pursue...
RADAMES:
I'd leave the world's misfortunes far behind me...
AIDA:
I'd put my faith and trust in something new...
BOTH: But why should I tell you this
AIDA: A stranger I've just met
RADAMES:
A woman who I hardly know at all and should forget!
BOTH:
A journey we can only dream of...
Enchantment passing through
And how is it I say these things
So easily to you?
RADAMES: (spoken)
I'll never take you sailing! I'm never going to leave Egypt again!
AIDA: (spoken)
You talk as though you've been enslaved. If you don't like your fate,
change it!
You are your own master, there are no shackles on you!
So don't expect any pity or understanding from this humble palace slave!
RADAMES:
And why did I tell her this
A stranger I've just met
A woman who I hardly know at all and will forget!
Anonymous and gone tomorrow...
Enchantment passing through....
And all I've done is tell her things
That she already knew
She knew...
She knew...
I may leave a great impression
As I race through a succession
Of the latest crazes,
chase the newest fad
I fell better when beguiling
Find that fashion keeps me smiling
But in my heart I know it's rather sad
AIDA:
That a life of great potential
Is dismissed inconsequential
AMNERIS:
And only ever seen as being cute
So I'll flutter to deceive
AIDA:
Oh no...
No you must believe
That one day you're bound to find
BOTH:
A stronger suit
AIDA:
It's knowing what they want of me that scares me
It's a knowing having followed that I must lead
It's a knowing that each person there compares me
To those in my past whom I now succeed
But how can whatever I do for them now
Be enough, be enough!
SLAVES:
Aida, Aida,
All we ask of you
Is a lifetime of service,
Wisdom, courage
To ask more would be selfish
But nothing less will do
Aida, Aida...
SLAVE:
Your robes should be golden
Your robes should be perfect
Instead of this ragged concoction of thread
But may you be moved by its desperate beauty
To give us new life for we'd rather be dead
Than live in the squalor and chains of the slave
To the dance, to the dance!
SLAVES:
Aida, Aida,
All we ask of you (All we ask)
Is a lifetime of service,
Wisdom, courage
To ask more would be selfish
But nothing less will do
Aida, Aida...
(shout) Aida!!
Aida, Aida, Aida, Aida, Aida
AIDA:
I know expectations are wild
And almost beyond my fulfillment
But they won't hear a word of a doubt
Or see signs of weakness
My royal impassable duty is clear
But if I can rekindle an excess of screams
To die, To die, To die...
(Aida, Aida, Aida, Aida, Aida)
Is enough!
(Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh...Oh...)
RADAMES:
I once knew all the answers, I stood on certain ground
A picture of true happiness, confidence so effortless
No brighter could be found
MEREB: Oh No...
RADAMES:
I never asked the questions that trouble me today
I knew all there was to know, love worn lightly, put on show
My conquest on display
MEREB:
I can't believe he's changing
RADAMES:
And who'd have thought that confidence could die?
MEREB: Oh no...
RADAMES: Not me...
MEREB: Not me...
RADAMES: Not me...
MEREB: Not me...
RADAMES: That all I took for granted was a lie?
MEREB: Oh no...
RADAMES: Not me...
MEREB: Not me...
RADAMES: Not me...
MEREB: Not me...
RADAMES:
And who'd have guessed I'd throw my world away
To be with someone I'm afraid will say "Not me..."
MEREB: This can never be
RADAMES: Not me...
MEREB: He's in love, but he's not the only one to be changed.
AMNERIS: (spoken) Why hasn't Radames come to see me again?
We're to be married in three days.. Aida, I must make things right with him
AIDA:
I shall not envy lovers, but long for what they share
AMNERIS:
An empty room is merciless, don't be surprised if I confess
I need some comfort there.
BOTH:
And who'd have thought a love could be so good
Not me, not me.....
And show me things I never understood
Not me, not me.....
And who'd have guessed he'd throw his world away
To be with someone 'till his dying day?
Not me, not me.....
AMNERIS, AIDA and RADAMES:
And who'd have thought a love could be so good?
MEREB: No good...
AMNERIS, AIDA and RADAMES: Not me...
MEREB: Not me...
AMNERIS, AIDA and RADAMES: Not me.....
MEREB: Not me...
AMNERIS, AIDA and RADAMES:
My secrets and my passions understood
MEREB: Oh no...
AMNERIS, AIDA and RADAMES: Not me...
MEREB: Not me...
AMNERIS, AIDA and RADAMES: Not me.....
MEREB: Not me...
AMNERIS, AIDA and RADAMES:
And who'd have guessed he'd throw his (my) world away
To be with someone till his (my) dying day
Not me...
MEREB: This can never be
AMNERIS, AIDA and RADAMES: Not me.....
RADAMES: Not me, oh not me
RADAMES:
We all lead such elaborate lives
Wild ambitions in our sights
How an affair of the heart survives
Days apart and hurried nights
Seems quite unbelievable to me
I don't want to live like that
Seems quite unbelievable to me
I don't want to love like that
I just want our time to be
Slower and gentler, wiser, free
We all live in extravagant times
Playing games we can't all win
Unintended emotional crimes
Take some out, take others in
I'm so tired of all we're going through
I don't want to live like that
I'm so tired of all we're going through
I don't want to love like that
I just want to be with you
Now and forever, peaceful, true
This may not be the moment
To tell you face to face
But I could wait forever
For the perfect time and place
AIDA and RADAMES:
We all lead such elaborate lives
We don't know whose words are true
Strangers, lovers, husbands, wives
Hard to know whose loving who
AIDA:
Too many choices tear us apart
I don't want to live like that
RADAMES:
Too many choices tear us apart
I don't wanna love like that
I just want to touch your heart,
May this confession be the start.
AIDA:
Take me in my dreams recurring
Cheerful as a childhood dance
Into one more taste of freedom
One more longing backward glance
In the sway of somber music
I shall never, never understand
Let me slip into the sweeter
Chorus of that other land
The gods love Nubia,
The beautiful, the golden
The radiant, the fertile,
The gentle and the blessed
The pain of Nubia is only of the moment
The desolate, the suffering,
The plundered, the oppressed
The gods love Nubia,
Their glorious creation
The songs roll sweetly
Across the harvest plain
The tears of Nubia,
A passing aberration
They wash into the river
And are never cried again
AIDA and OTHERS:
The gods love Nubia,
We have to keep believing
Though scattered and divided,
We are still it's heart (Yes, we are)
The fall of Nubia, ephemeral and fleeting
The spirit always burning though the flesh is torn apart.
Take me in (Take me in)
My dreams recurring (my dreams recurring)
Cheerful as a childhood dance
Into one more taste of freedom
One more longing backward glance
One more longing backward glance
The gods love Nubia,
The beautiful, the golden
The radiant, the fertile,
The gentle and the blessed
The pain of Nubia is only of the moment
The desolate, the suffering,
The plundered, the oppressed
The gods love Nubia,
We have to keep believing
Though we're scattered and divided,
We are still it's heart (Yes we are)
The fall of Nubia, ephemeral and fleeting
The spirit always burning though the flesh is torn apart.
My spirit will keep on burning though the flesh is torn apart.
Take me in my dreams recurring
One more longing backward glance
AMNERIS:
It's so strange he doesn't show me more affection than he needs
Almost formal, too respectful, never takes romantic leads
There are times when I imagine I'm not always on his mind
He's not thinking what I'm thinking, always half a step behind
Always half a step behind
Oh, oh, oh oh...
Oh, oh, oh oh...
Oh, oh, oh oh...
RADAMES:
I'm in every kind of trouble, can't you tell, just look at me
Half ecstatic, half dejected, all in all I'm all at sea
Easy terms I thought I wanted, fill me now with chilling dread
You can never know the chaos, of a life turned on it's head
Of a life turned on its head
Oh, oh, oh oh...
AMNERIS and RADAMES:
Oh, oh, oh oh...
Oh, oh, oh oh...
Oh, oh, oh oh...oh...
AIDA:
I am certain that I love him, but a love can be misplaced
Have I compromised my people, in my passion and my haste?
I could be his life companion, anywhere but where we are
Am I leader, am I traitor?
Did I take a step too far? Did I take a step too far?
(All three repeat lines in a round)
AIDA: Oh, oh, oh oh...
AIDA and AMNERIS: Oh, oh, oh oh...
ALL:
Oh, oh, oh oh...
Oh, oh, oh oh...oh...
Oh, oh, oh oh...
Oh, oh, oh oh...
AIDA: Oh, oh, oh oh...
ALL:
Oh, oh, oh oh...
Did I take a step too far?
AIDA:
This is the moment when the gods expect me
To beg for help but I won't even try
I want nothing in this world but myself to protect me
But I won't lie down, roll over and die
All I have to do is to forget how much I love him
All I have to do is put my longing to one side
Tell myself that love's an ever-changing situation
Passion would have cooled and all the magic would have died
It's easy, it's easy
All I have to do is to pretend I never knew him
On those very rare occasions when he steals into my heart
Better to have lost him when the ties were barely binding
Better the contempt of the familiar cannot start
It's easy, it's easy
Until I think about him as he was when I last saw him
And how he would have been were I to be with him today
Those very rare occasions, don't let up they keep on coming
All I ever wanted and I'm throwing it away.
It's easy, it's easy as life
But then I see the faces of an undefeated people
A father and a nation who will never come undone
This is how the gods rule all the faithful through the ages
Forces us to move in one of the hardest things we've done
It's easy, so easy
Oh, and though I'll think about him
'Til the earth draws in around me
And though I choose to leave him for another kind of love
This is no denial, no betrayal, but redemption
Redeemed in my own eyes and in the pantheon above
It's easy, it's easy, as life
It's easy, as life
It's easy, as life
RADAMES' FATHER:
Don't come on so cocksure boy, you can't escape your genes
No point in feeling pure boy, your background intervenes
Now, listen good and listen straight, you're not the master of your fate
To this you must be reconciled, you'll always be your father's child
At times acclaimed, at times reviled
You'll wind up doing just what I'd have done
Like father, like son
Like father, like son
RADAMES:
Don't assume your vices get handed down the line
That a parent's blood suffices to condemn the child's design
I've done wrong, I can't deny, but at least I know that I
Shouldn't blame that on my stock, well this may come as quite a shock
But I'm no chip off any block, I wouldn't wish those words on anyone
Like father, like son
Like father, like son
RADAMES' FATHER:
Son, you're nervous, take my hand
All is settled, all is planned
You've got the world at your command
I don't think you understand
RADAMES:
I appreciate too well
The squalor at which you excell
It isn't too hard to tell
Evil's a distinctive smell
RADAMES' FATHER:
He's lost all sense of reason, and why? Some foreign slut!
Not all it is that treason, some doors are slammin' shut
Now just like me he's found that flesh
Can excite but will enmesh
Once we rid him of this plight,
Once this harlot's out of sight,
Then I think he'll see the light,
He won't walk back to daddy he will run!
Like father, like son...
Like father, like son...
Like father, like son...
Like father, like son...
RADAMES:
I'm sorry for everything I've said
And for anything I forgot to say too
When things get so complicated
I stumble, at best, muddle through
I wish that our lives could be simple
I don't want the world, only you
Oh, I wish I could tell you this face to face
But there's never the time, never the place
So this letter will have to do
I love you!
MEREB:
There is a time, there is a place
When love should conquer all
The rest of life is pushed aside
As truth and reason fall
But only if that selfishness
Can lead to something good
I thought I knew you, princess
But I never understood!
I don't know you!
I don't know you!
AIDA:
I am here to tell you
We can never meet again
Simple really, isn't it,
A word or two and then
A lifetime of not knowing
Where or how or why or when
You think of me, or speak of me
And wonder what befell
That someone you once loved
So long ago so well
RADAMES:
Never wonder what I'll feel
As living shuffles by
You don't have to ask me
And I need not reply
Every moment of my life
From now until I die
I will think or dream of you
And fail to understand
How a perfect love can be
Confounded out of hand
Is it written in the stars?
Are we paying for some crime?
Is that all that we are good for?
Just a stretch of mortal time?
For some god's experiment
In which we have no say,
In which we're given paradise
But only for a day
AIDA:
(spoken) Marry the princess Radames. You can help my people.
This could be our chance to do something important! Don't you see?
Nothing can be altered,
There is nothing to decide
No escape, no change of heart,
No anyplace to hide
RADAMES:
Oh, You are all I'll ever want,
But this I am denied
Sometimes in my darkest thoughts,
I wish I'd never learned
BOTH:
What it is to be in love
And have that love returned
AIDA:
Is it written in the stars?
Are we paying for some crime?
Is that all that we are good for?
Just a stretch of mortal time?
For some God's experiment
In which we have no say
In which we're given paradise
But only for a day!
AMNERIS:
How have I come to this?
How did I slip and fall?
How did I throw half a lifetime away
Without any thought at all?
This should've been my time
It's over, it never began
I closed my eyes to so much for so long
And I no longer can
I try to blame it on fortune
Some kind of shift in a star
But I know the truth and it haunts me
It's flown just a little too far
I know the truth and it mocks me
I know the truth and it shocks me
It's flown just a little too far
Why do I want him still?
Why, when there's nothing there?
How to go on with the rest of my life?
To pretend I don't care?
This should have been my time
It's over, it never began
I closed my eyes to so much for so long
And I no longer can
I try to blame it on fortune
Some kind of twist in my fate
But I know the truth and it haunts me
I learned it a little too late
Oh, I know the truth and it mocks me
I know the truth and it shocks me
I learned it a little too late
Too late...
AIDA:
We all lead such elaborate lives
Wild ambitions in our sights
How an affair of the heart survives
Days apart and hurried nights
Seems quite unbelievable to me
I don't want to live like that
Seems quite unbelievable to me
I don't want to love like that
I just want our time to be
Slower and gentler, wiser, free
We all live in extravagant times
Playing games we can't all win
Unintended emotional crimes
Take some out, take others in
Too many choices tear us apart
I don't want to live like that
Too many choices tear us apart
I don't want to love like that
I just wanna keep your heart!
May this confession be the start
I know you gave me courage
To face what I must face
With all these complications
In another time and place!
AIDA and RADAMES:
We all lead such elaborate lives
We don't know whose words are true
An affair of the heart survives
All the pain this world can do
RADAMES:
I'm so tired of all we're going through
I don't want to live like that
AIDA:
I'm so tired of all we're going through
I don't want to love like that
I just wanna be with you
Now and forever, peaceful, true
RADAMES:
There'd be no ties of time and space to bind us
AIDA:
And no horizons we could not pursue
BOTH:
We'd leave the world's misfortunes far behind us
And I will put my faith and trust in you
AMNERIS:
From deep within the tomb
A gentle light still shone
Showing me my path
As I ascended to the throne
Certain in my heart
That ancient wars must cease
A lovers' death gave birth
To a reign of peace
And their story, and my journey
And the lessons they provide
Draw their strength and inspiration
From a love that never died
All lyrics c 1999 Wonderland Music Company Inc./Happenstance Ltd./Evadon
Ltd.
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