AMNERIS
Ev'ry story, tale or memoir
Ev'ry 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, finely spun
Whether with a thousand players
Or a lonely cast of one

Ev'ry story, new or ancient
Bagatelle or work of art
All are tales of human failing
All are tales of love at heart
 

AMNERIS
This is the story
Of a love that flourished
In a time of hate

Of lovers no tyranny could separate
Love set into motion on the Nile's shore
Destiny ignited by an act of war

Egypt saw the mighty river as its very heart and soul
Source of life for all her people
That only Egypt could control
Destruction of her southern neighbor justified
Nubia exploited, left with little more than pride

SOLDIERS
Oh oh
Fortune favors the brave
Oh oh
Fortune favors the brave

RADAMES
We have swept to glory, Egypt's mastery expands
From the Nile's northern most 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

SOLDIERS
Oh oh
Fortune favors the brave

RADAMES
It's all worked out, my road is clear
The lines of latitude extend
Way beyond my wildest dreams
Toward some great triumphant end
We seize the day, we turned the tide
We touched the stars, we mocked the grave
We moved into uncharted lands

RADAMES & SOLDIERS
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 call to me
It's harder from the palace yard
Fortune favors the free

SOLDIERS
Oh, oh

RADAMES
Fortune favors the young!

SOLDIERS
Oh, oh

RADAMES
Fortune favors the brave!

AIDA
You know nothing about me and care even less
How could you understand our emptiness
You've 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 timeless joys of childhood
Lie broken on the beach

The present is an empty space
Between the good and bad
A moment leading nowhere
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 heartless and material
Its wretched spoils not my concern
Shining like an evil sun
As my childhood treasures burn
Shining like an evil sun
As my childhood treasures burn

ZOSER
While you've been away cavorting
Matters here have moved apace
Now I need you home supporting
All 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
Is 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 must have its day

If our country is to flourish
Then my son must take the lead
Be our inspiration, nourish
All our hopes our dreams our creed

Soon our monarch will have filled a
Tomb just like his fathers did
Summon Egypt's greatest builders
Re: another pyramid

MINISTERS
Build it, build it
Another pyramid

ZOSER
There will be a time for mourning
But for now put plans on hold

MINISTERS
Hold

ZOSER
For I give the nation warning
That before the corpse is cold

MINISTERS
Cold

ZOSER
We'll extend fair Egypt's power
Egypt's glory strength and style
We shall have 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 stand by
Build another pyramid!

MINISTERS
Build it, build it
Build it, build it
Build it, build it
Build it-

Build it, build it
Build it-

ZOSER
He must have a vault that's grand by
Any standards, floor to lid
Put five thousand slaves on stand by
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 your 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 our 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

MEREB
Yes, I know you

AIDA
You don't know me

MEREB
How I know you
How I know you

AMNERIS
In life one must 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

Oh now I believe in looking
Like my time on earth is cooking
Whether polka-dotted
striped or even checked
With some glamour guaranteeing
Ever fiber of my being
Is displayed to quite remarkable effect

AMNERIS (WOMEN)
From your cradle via trousseau (Ah)
To your deathbed you're on view, so (Ah)
Never compromise, accept no substitute (Ah)
I would rather wear a barrel (Ah)
Than conservative apparel (Ah)
For dress has always been (Ah)
My strongest suit (Ah)

WOMEN
Overwear
Underwear
Anytime
Anywhere

AMNERIS (WOMEN)
Staying in or hitting townwards (Ooh ooh ooh ah)
From the top and working downwards (Ooh ooh ooh ah)
I ensure that every stitch (Ooh ooh ooh ah)
Is stitched in time (Is stitched in time)
Whether wig or hat or turban (Ooh ooh ooh ah)
Whether clad boudoir or urban (Ooh ooh ooh ah)
Not to strut your stuff (Ooh ooh ooh ah)
Outrageously's a crime (Such a crime)

And the few who are invited (Oooh overwear)
To my wardrobe are delighted (Oooh underwear)
As they wander through my things (Oooh anytime)
To find en route (We're wandering through your things)
That in negligee or formal (Ooh negligee)
I am anything but normal (Ooh anything but normal normal)
For dress has always been
My strongest suit

WOMEN
Overwear, underwear,
Anytime, anywhere,

AMNERIS
I am what I wear

WOMEN
Overwear, underwear,
Anytime, anywhere,

AMNERIS
I said anytime

WOMEN
Overwear, underwear,
Anytime, anywhere,
Overwear, underwear,
Anytime

AMNERIS
Anywhere

AMNERIS (WOMEN)
So bring me all my finest (Finest)
Most audacious my divinest (Divinest)
Most revealing
Most expensive and to boot (Most revealing, most expensive)
Most arresting (Most arresting)
Most heart-stopping (Most heart-stopping)
Most free-flowing (Overwear)
Most eye-popping (Underwear)
Most arresting (Anytime)
Most heart-stopping (Anywhere)
Dress has always been (Dress has always been)
My strongest suit

WOMEN
I am what I wear

AMNERIS
My strongest suit

WOMEN
I am what I wear

AMNERIS (WOMEN)
You know that
I am what I wear (I am what I wear)
Dress has always been (Dress has always been)
My strongest suit (My strongest suit)

AMNERIS (WOMEN)
So bring me all my finest (Finest)
Most audacious my divinest (Divinest)
Most revealing
Most expensive and to boot (Most revealing, most expensive)
Most arresting (Most arresting)
Most heart-stopping (Most heart-stopping)
Most free-flowing (Overwear)
Most eye-popping (Underwear)
Most arresting (Anytime)
Most heart-stopping (Anywhere)
Dress has always been (Dress has always been)
My strongest suit

My strongest suit ( I am what I wear)
You know that (I am what I wear)
I am what I wear (I am what I wear)
Dress has always been (Dress has always been)
My strongest (My strongest)
My strongest (My strongest)
My strongest (My strongest)
My strongest (My strongest)
My strongest suit (My strongest)

WOMEN
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 in between

AIDA
Are you talking about Nubia now?

RADAMES
Yes--
in a way

AIDA
If I could leave this place then I'd be sailing
To corners of my land where there would be
Sweet southern winds of liberty prevailing
The beauty so majestic and so free

RADAMES
I will take you sailing
South
You could be my guide

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 trusting in something new

RADAMES & AIDA
But why should I tell you this

AIDA
A stranger I just met

RADAMES
A woman whom I hardly know at all and should forget

RADAMES & AIDA
A journey we can only dream of
Enchantment passing through
And how is it I say these things
So easily to you

RADAMES
I'll never take you sailing!
I'm never going to leave Egypt again!

AIDA
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
But 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
she already knew
She knew... She knew....

AIDA
It's knowing what they want of me that scares me
It's knowing having followed that I must lead
It's 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

NUBIANS
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!

NEHEBKA
You robe should be golden, your robe 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
Then live in the squalor and shame of the slave
To the dance!
To the dance!

NUBIANS
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!

NUBIANS
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 nigh on impossible duty is clear
If I can rekindle my ancestors' dreams
It's enough
It's enough

AIDA
It's enough

NUBIANS
Aida!

NUBIANS
Aida! Aida!
Aida! Aida! Aida!

AIDA
It's enough

NUBIANS
Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah

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

RADAMES (MEREB)
My conquests on display (I can't believe He's changing)
And who'd have thought that (Oh, no)
Confidence could die?
Not me , Not me (Not me, not me)
That all I took for granted was a lie

Not me, Not me
And who'd have guessed
I'd throw my world away

To be with someone I'm afraid will say (This can never be)
Not me, not me

MEREB
He's in love
But he's not the only one
Who'll be changed

AMNERIS
Why hasn't Radames come to see me again?
We're to be married in three days and yet--
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

AIDA & AMNERIS
And who'd have thought
That love could be so good?
Not me, not me
And show me things I never understood
Not me, not me

Who'd have guessed he'd
Throw his world away
To be with someone till his dying day
Not me, not me

RADAMES, AMNERIS & AIDA (MEREB)
And who'd have thought that love
Could be so good (No good)
Not me, not me (Not me, not me)
My/his secrets and
My/his passions understood (Oh no)
Not me, not me (Not me, not me)

Who'd have guessed
I'd/ he throw my/his world away
To be with someone till my/his dying day
Not me, not me (This can never be)

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 were going through
I don't want to live like that
I'm so tired of all were 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 & RADAMES
We all lead such elaborate lives
We don't know whose words are true
Strangers, lovers, husbands, wives
Hard to know who's 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 want to love like that
I just want to touch your heart
May this confession

RADAMES & AIDA
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

AIDA (NUBIANS)
In the sway of somber music (Mmm mmm)
I shall never, never understand (Mmm mmm)
Let me slip into the sweeter (Mmm mmm)
Chorus of that other land (Mmm mmm)

The gods love Nubia, (Hmm hmm)
the beautiful, the golden (Hmm hmm)
The radiant, the fertile, (Hmm hmm)
the gentle and the blessed (Hmm hmm hmm)

The pain of Nubia (Hmm hmm)
is only for the moment (Hmm hmm)
the desolate the suffering (Hmm hmm)
the plundered, the oppressed (Hmm hmm)

NEHEBKA
The gods love Nubia,
their glorious creation
Its songs roll sweetly
across the harvest plain

NEHEBKA & AIDA (NUBIANS)
The tears of Nubia, (Hmm)
a passing aberration (Hmm)
They wash into the river (Hmm)
and are never cried again (Never cried again)

NEHEBKA, AIDA, MEREB & NUBIAN WOMEN (NUBIAN MEN)
The gods love Nubia, (Ooh)
we have to keep believing (Ooh)
The scattered and divided, (Ooh)
we are still it's heart (Ooh ooh ooh)

ALL
The fall of Nubia
Ephemeral and fleeting
The spirit always burning
Though the flesh is torn apart

Take me in my dreams recurring
Cheerful as a childhood dance
Into one more taste of freedom
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 for the moment
the desolate the suffering
the plundered, the oppressed

The gods love Nubia
we have to keep believing
Though scattered and divided we are still it's heart
The fall of Nubia ephemeral and fleeting the spirit always
Burning though the flesh is torn apart
The spirit always burning though the flesh is torn apart

AIDA
Apart

ALL
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 could never know the chaos
Of a life turned on it's head
Of a life turned on it's head

Oh, oh, oh, oh

RADAMES & AMNERIS
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?

AMNERIS, RADAMES & AIDA sing their lines like a round song

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

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 could never know the chaos
Of a life turned on it's head
Of a life turned on it's head

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?

Oh, oh, oh, oh

AIDA & RADAMES
Oh, oh, oh, oh

AIDA, RADAMES & AMNERIS
Oh, oh, oh, oh
Oh, oh, oh, oh

Oh, oh, oh, oh
Oh, oh, oh, oh,
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 touched 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 saw the faces of a worn , defeated people
A father and a nation who won't let a coward run
is this how the gods reward the faithful through the ages ?
Forcing us to prove the hardest thing we've done
Are easy
So easy

And though I'll think about him till the earth draws in around me
And though I choose to leave him for another kind of love
There 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

MINISTERS
Like father, like son
Like father, like son

ZOSER
Don't come on so cocksure boy, you can't escape your genes
No point in feeling pure boy, your background intervenes
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've done
Like father, like

ZOSER & MINISTERS
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, this may come as quite a shock
I'm no chip off any block, I wouldn't wish those words on anyone
Like father, like

RADAMES & MINISTERS
Son

ZOSER
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 excel
it isn't very hard to tell
Evil's a distinctive smell

ZOSER
He's lost all sense of reason, and why?
Some foreign slut
That is the road called treason,
Some doors are slamming shut
Just like me he's found that flesh can excite but will enmesh
Once we rid him of this blight.
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

ZOSER & MINISTERS
Son

Like father, like son
Like father, like son
Like father, like

ZOSER
Son

RADAMES
I'm sorry for everything I've said
And for anything I forgot to say
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....

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
The 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
Or some God's experiment
In which we have no say
In which we're given paradise
But only for a day

AIDA
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

AIDA & RADAMES
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

RADAMES
Or some

BOTH
god's experiment
In which we have no say
In which we're given paradise
But only for a day

AMNERIS
How did 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 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 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'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 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