Prima Donna
(Andrew Lloyd Webber)
Prima Donna
by Andrew Lloyd Webber
“ Prima Donna ” is a song from the 1986 musical The Phantom Of The Opera with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Charles Hart, and a libretto by Lloyd Webber and Richard Stilgoe. Based on the 1910 French novel of the same name by Gaston Leroux, its central plot revolves around a beautiful soprano, Christine Daaé, who becomes the obsession of a mysterious, masked musical genius living in the subterranean labyrinth beneath the Paris Opéra House.
The musical opened in London’s West End in 1986, and on Broadway in 1988. It won the 1986 Olivier Award and the 1988 Tony Award for Best Musical, and Michael Crawford (in the title role) won the Olivier and Tony Awards for Best Actor in a Musical. It is currently the longest running show in Broadway history, and celebrated its 10,000th Broadway performance on 11 February 2012, the first production ever to do so.
Lyrics
Prima Donna
Your devotees are on their knees to implore you
Can you bow out when they’re shouting your name?
Think of how they all adore you
Prima Donna, enchant us once again
Think of your muse and of the queues ’round the theatre!
Can you deny us the triumph in store?
Sing, Prima Donna, once more (Christine spoke of an angel)
Prima Donna, your song shall live again
(Think of your public) you took a snub
But there’s a public who needs you
Those who hear your voice liken you to an angel
Think of the cry of undying support (we get our opera)
Follow where the limelight leads you (she gets her limelight)
Leading ladies are a trial
Prima Donna, your song shall never die (when she sings we see heaven)
You’ll sing again (orders, warning)
(Lunatic demands are regular occurrences)
Think how you’ll shine in that final encore (surely there’ll be further scenes)
Sing, Prima Donna, once more (worse than this)
(I must see these demands are rejected!)
Who’d believe a diva happy to relieve
A chorus girl whose gone and slept with the patron?
Raoul and the soubrette entwined in love’s duet
Although he may demur he must have been with her
You’d never get away with all this in a play
But if it’s loudly sung and in a foreign tongue
It’s just the sort of story, audiences adore
In fact, a perfect opera (for if his curse is on this opera)
Prima Donna, the world is at your feet
A nation waits, and how it hates to be cheated!
Light up the stage with that age-old rapport
Sing, Prima Donna
Once more!
Songwriters: Andrew Lloyd Webber / Richard Henry Zachary S. Stilgoe / Charles A. Hart
