TRANSITION
ATTENDANTS
I've watched you from my window
I saw you on the day that you arrived.
Perhaps it was the way you walked.
The way you spoke to your men.
You were different then,
You were kind and good.
I thought you understood ...
GIORGIO
(spoken) You sent for me.
FOSCA
(spoken) I received your letter and I thank you.
I hope we can still shake hands.
GIORGIO
(spoken) Yes, of course. We can certainly be friends.
FOSCA
(spoken) You have no idea how mortified I am.
GIORGIO
(spoken) Mortified?
FOSCA
(spoken) About everything that has happened.
My emotions sometimes overpower my judgement.
GIORGIO
(spoken) I found your affection very flattering.
FOSCA
(spoken) How indulgent you are with me.
Did you amuse yourself in Milan?
GIORGIO
(spoken) Very much.
FOSCA
(spoken) Admit that you only took leave to visit my rival.
GIORGIO
(spoken) Your rival? Yes, of course that was the purpose of my visit.
FOSCA
(spoken) Excuse me. I can be very naive sometimes.
I should have understood what you meant by your "urgent need to leave".
Will you be going back soon?
GIORGIO
(spoken) Whenever I can. As soon as possible.
FOSCA
(spoken) If you get another leave.
GIORGIO
(spoken) Naturally.
FOSCA
(spoken) Perhaps I should put in a word to my cousin.
My help might serve you well. On the other hand, a negative
word...
GIORGIO
(spoken) Place more value on your dignity.
Don't offend your pride, Signora.
FOSCA
(spoken) We each deal with our pride as best we can.
Do you love this woman very much?
GIORGIO
(spoken) I wrote to you.
FOSCA
(spoken) Is she beautiful?
GIORGIO
(spoken) As an angel.
FOSCA
(spoken) Then why don't you marry her?
GIORGIO
(spoken) She is already married.
FOSCA
(spoken) And you respect her.
GIORGIO
(spoken) You can't love someone without respecting.
FOSCA
(spoken) That's not true, but it hardly matters.
And is your angel also a mother?
GIORGIO
(spoken) Let's stop torturing each other like this.
It's humiliating and degrading. I find your sarcasm most distasteful.
FOSCA
(spoken) I have many flaws, Captain.
GIORGIO
(spoken) Our situation is well-defined. Let's not discuss this subject again.
FOSCA
(spoken) That is what I would like.
GIORGIO
(spoken) Good. Perhaps we should have no further occasion to speak of ourselves.
FOSCA
(spoken) You may also hope that we do not see each other again.
GIORGIO
(spoken) Yes, that might be very well the best course of action.
FOSCA
(spoken) You may go now, Captain. I have more important things to do.
THREE WEEKS
CLARA
Three weeks ...
Three weeks ...
SOLDIERS
This is hell,
Living hell ...
CLARA
(spoken) My darling Clara.
The last three weeks have been a blessing.
Signora FOSCA has all but disappeared from my life here.
SOLDIERS
Living hell ...
This godforsaken place
CLARA
(spoken) She no longer has her meals with us.
Even in her absence I find myself hating her more and more.
SOLDIERS
This sterile little town
This military madness ...
CLARA
(spoken) I've realized how I've had to temper my feelings towards her.
But now that I'm free, I can feel as I please.
SOLDIERS
Uniforms, uniforms ...
CLARA
(spoken) But you, my Clara -
SOLDIERS
Our days are spent in maneuvers
Our evenings in discussing the day
CLARA
(spoken) You remain in my thoughts
SOLDIERS
Uniforms, uniforms
CLARA
(spoken) - as strong as ever
SOLDIERS
Military madness ...
Military madness ...
GIORGIO
(spoken) Doctor.
DOCTOR
(spoken) Thank you for coming so late, Captain.
Signora FOSCA has taken a turn for the worse. She is mortally ill.
GIORGIO
(spoken) I'm sorry to hear that.
DOCTOR
(spoken) Don't you understand, my boy? It's because of you.
GIORGIO
(spoken) Because of me?
DOCTOR
(spoken) She told me everything.
You rejected her love - which doesn't actually surprise me -
and that has increased the gravity of her disease.
She is letting herself die because of you.
GIORGIO
(spoken) Because of me! Letting herself die?
DOCTOR
(spoken) This passion she has developed for you -
GIORGIO
(spoken) Passion for me? Doctor, I hardly know this woman.
She threw herself at me and for no reason. I am sure you
will do all you can for her.
DOCTOR
(spoken) A simple act on your part is also required.
GIORGIO
(spoken) I do not wish to get involved.
DOCTOR
(spoken) You are involved. Go and see her.
GIORGIO
(spoken) No! How can I possibly visit Signora Fosca at her sick bed at night? It's improper. The Colonel would never approve.
DOCTOR
(spoken) You needn't worry about that. I have made all the arrangements.
GIORGIO
(spoken) Does she know about this?
DOCTOR
(spoken) You can't imagine what this has cost her.
You're a good-looking young man. Beauty has a price as has goodness -
another quality you embody. Be kind. Go and see her now.
GIORGIO
(spoken) And if I go, what then? What will she ask of me tomorrow, next week?
DOCTOR
(spoken) I know how difficult this is for you.
But she is dying. And all you have to give her is a few words.
Kind words which will make her well.
What is the cost of a few words when a life hangs in the balance?
Good night.
GIORGIO
(spoken) No need to be frightened. It's only me. It's Giorgio.
FOSCA
(spoken) Oh my God! It's really you.
I never thought you would come.
Of course I had hoped ... Will you forgive me for having asked?
GIORGIO
(spoken) I am here because I chose to be.
FOSCA
(spoken) Sit down.
No, sit here.
Please.
Put your feet on the bed.
GIORGIO
(spoken) I am fine, Signora.
FOSCA
(spoken) I want you to be comfortable. Please.
God, you are so beautiful.
Come, let me see you in the light.
No, don't look at me.
Let me look at you.
I feel better in the dark.
GIORGIO
(spoken) Your kindness makes you beautiful.
FOSCA
(spoken) And do you value such beauty?
GIORGIO
(spoken) Yes, of course.
FOSCA
(spoken) How do good hearts beat?
Can you distinguish them from the bad?
Listen to my heart, Giorgio.
It says it loves you.
What does your heart say?
GIORGIO
(spoken) It says it loves you.
FOSCA
(spoken) Like a friend?
GIORGIO
(spoken) Tonight, tonight it loves you as you wish.
FOSCA
(spoken) Thank you, Giorgio. I so wanted to forget you.
To think that I could! I wanted to die without seeing you -
GIORGIO
(spoken) No, I am here to tell you you'd be happier living.
FOSCA
(spoken) That day I was so unpleasant to you -
GIORGIO
(spoken) Please, don't speak of the past.
Now that I've come, now that we've spoken, now you should get some sleep.
FOSCA
(spoken) Will you stay if I do?
GIORGIO
(spoken) Yes. Yes, of course.
FOSCA
(spoken) Will you sleep, too?
GIORGIO
(spoken) If I can.
FOSCA
(spoken) Put your head near mine. Can we dream together?
GIORGIO
(spoken) Yes.
CLARA
(spoken) My darling Giorgio.
It's three in the morning. I've just arisen from a dream of you,
a dream so real I could swear you were there at my side.
I am so used to this, having you in my dreams night after night.
How I wish I could just lie by your side and watch you sleep.
To see you disarmed, at peace.
Sometimes I think when you watch a person sleep there's a transparency
that lets you see their soul. How I long to see yours ...
FOSCA
(spoken) It is you. I thought I was dreaming.
Draw the curtain, please. I want to see the stars before the daylight takes
them away. Do you think there are worlds out there?
GIORGIO
(spoken)Yes, I do.
FOSCA
(spoken) Will we visit them one day?
GIORGIO
(spoken) Oh, I hope so. When I was a child I used to dream I could fly -
travel to faraway places.
FOSCA
(spoken) What is a man like you doing in the army, Giorgio?
GIORGIO
(spoken) My father was an officer. It was expected.
FOSCA
(spoken) Call me by my name.
GIORGIO
(spoken) Fosca.
FOSCA
(spoken) Say "Giorgio and Fosca".
GIORGIO
(spoken) Giorgio and Fosca.
FOSCA
(spoken) Say "Fosca and Giorgio"
GIORGIO
(spoken) Fosca and Giorgio.
FOSCA
(spoken) It's music!
Do you love this woman very much?
GIORGIO
(spoken) Please don't ask me. I've told you how I feel.
FOSCA
(spoken) What is her name?
GIORGIO
(spoken) Clara.
FOSCA
(spoken) Clara.
GIORGIO
(spoken) I should be going. It will be light soon.
FOSCA
(spoken) Will you do me a great favor before you go?
GIORGIO
(spoken) If I can.
FOSCA
(spoken) Would you write a letter for me?
GIORGIO
(spoken) Certainly.
FOSCA
(spoken) You find paper on my desk.
GIORGIO
(spoken) Yes?
I WISH I COULD FORGET YOU
FOSCA
(spoken) My dearest Fosca...
Please.
GIORGIO
(spoken) 'My dearest Fosca'
FOSCA
I wish I could forget you.
Erase you from my mind.
But ever since I met you,
I find, I cannot leave the thought of you behind.
That doesn't mean I love you ...
GIORGIO
That doesn't mean I love you ...
FOSCA
I wish that I could love you ...
I know that I've upset you,
I know I've been unkind.
I wanted you to vanish from sight,
But now I see you in a different light.
And though I cannot love you,
I wish that I could love you.
For now I'm seeing love like none I've ever known.
A love as pure as breath, as permanent as death.
Implacable as stone.
A love that, like a knife,
Has cut into a life
I wanted left alone.
A love I may regret,
But one I can't forget.
I don't know how I let you
So far inside my mind,
But there you are and there you will stay
How could I ever wish you away?
I see now I was blind.
And should you die tomorrow,
Another thing I see.
Your love will live in me.
(spoken) I remain ... Your Giorgio.
Bring it to me.
Thank you, Giorgio. It's getting light.
You better go.
Do you have sisters?
GIORGIO
(spoken) Yes.
FOSCA
(spoken) Do you kiss them goodbye?
GIORGIO
(spoken) Occasionally.
FOSCA
(spoken) Would you kiss me goodbye the way you do them?
No, like you kiss her.
Go now! Go quickly! I'm going to scream!
SOLDIERS' GOSSIP
TORASSO
Did you hear the scream last night?
AUGENTI
Did anybody not?
RIZZOLLI
(spoken) Four-ball in the side.
COOK
She knows how to scream all right.
BARRI
Well, she practises a lot.
AUGENTI
(spoken) Good shot.
RIZZOLLI
(spoken) Six-ball in the corner.
COOK
So that wasn't dying, we assume.
BARRI
No, I think she just fell off her broom.
TORRASSO
Or they hung a mirror in the room or La Signora!
BARRI
La Signora!
AUGENTI
La Signora!
RIZZOLLI
(spoken) Please, a little quiet! Care to play, Captain?
GIORGIO
(spoken) No. Thank you for asking
TORASSO
Just a bit aloof, don't you think?
COOK
Not around the colonel.
RIZZOLLI
Gentlemen, gentlemen...
AUGENTI
Never trust a man who doesn't drink.
TORASSO
And he keeps a journal.
BARRI
(spoken) Eight-ball off the nine.
RIZZOLLI
Maybe, though, he just prefers his books.
COOK
Not as much as he prefers his looks.
TORASSO
Which is why he think he's got his hooks into La Signora --
BARRI
Gentlemen, I'll make a wager: Come the Summer, he'll be major --
RIZZOLLI
I'll say!
ALL
I'll say!
FLASHBACK
COLONEL
Captain, I cannot thank you enough.
Signora Fosca has always had a shortage of friends.
FOSCA
(spoken) My dear Giorgio...
What a joy to have someone to write to, someone with whom I can share my past.
COLONEL
(spoken) I was a young man when my parents died,
and Fosca's mother and father welcomed me into their house whenever I was on leave.
(sung) As a child...
FOSCA
As a child...
COLONEL
She was lonely --
FOSCA
I was happy --
COLONEL
Her parents doted on her --
FOSCA
My parents doted on me --
FOSCA AND COLONEL
They said:
MOTHER AND FATHER
Beautiful.
MOTHER
So sensitive.
MOTHER AND FATHER
So beautiful.
FOSCA
They told me to be:
MOTHER
Careful --
COLONEL
Of course --
MOTHER
-- Fosca.
COLONEL
-- To them she was.
FATHER
A girl as beautiful as you are has to --
FOSCA
and so --
FATHER
-- Be careful.
FOSCA
-- I thought that I was beautiful.
FOSCA AND COLONEL
And then I/she reached the age
Where being beautiful
Becomes the most important thing
A woman can be.
COLONEL
An unattractive man -
FOSCA
As long as you're a man.
You still have opportunities.
COLONEL
-- Can still have opportunities.
MOTHER AND FATHER
Beautiful...
COLONEL AND FOSCA
Whereas, if you're a woman,
You either are a daughter or a wife.
MOTHER AND FATHER
A woman is a flower.
FOSCA AND COLONEL
You marry --
FATHER
-- You're seventeen
COLONEL
-- Or you're a daughter all your life.
MOTHER AND FATHER
Now is the hour...
COLONEL
I'd met this nice young man.
FOSCA
I'd seen this nice young man --
COLONEL
He'd introduced myself --
FOSCA
-- Passing by --
COLONEL
-- At my club.
FOSCA
-- Just below my window.
COLONEL
So --
FOSCA
One day --
COLONEL
-- One evening I invited him --
FOSCA
-- He tipped his hat to me.
COLONEL
-- Home.
(spoken) Count Ludovic --
FOSCA
I must admit that I was flattered --
COLONEL
(spoken) This is my Aunt Theresa and my Uncle Bruno.
MOTHER
(spoken) A count?
FATHER
(spoken) From where, if I may ask?
LUDOVIC
(spoken) Austria.
FATHER AND MOTHER
Austria...
MOTHER
What a beautiful place.
COLONEL
(spoken) Fosca, we have a visitor!
FOSCA
Imagine my surprise...
COLONEL
(spoken) I'd like you to meet a new friend. Count Ludovic.
FOSCA
(spoken) He was even more handsome up close.
COLONEL
(spoken) I was amazed to see the Count take such an interest in my cousin.
LUDOVIC
If I had known you were here, Signorina --
FOSCA
(spoken) "If he had known..." Of course he knew.
LUDOVIC
-- I would have brought you many flowers.
COLONEL
(spoken) If I had known...
LUDOVIC
You do like flowers?
FOSCA
(spoken) Yes.
COLONEL
I should have known.
LUDOVIC
I've seen you at your window.
MOTHER
(spoken) Won't you stay for dinner?
FATHER
(spoken) Do. Yes.
LUDOVIC
I've watched you every day since I arrived.
FOSCA
I had my suspicions.
COLONEL
I had no suspicion.
FOSCA AND COLONEL
I chose not to see.
LUDOVIC
The way you move,
The way you gaze at the sky...
FOSCA
For love had made me blind...
COLONEL
How could I be so blind?
FOSCA
-- Or what I took for love.
COLONEL
(spoken) Within a month, he had asked for her hand.
GIORGIO
(spoken) Signora Fosca has been married?
COLONEL
(spoken) Yes.
FATHER AND MOTHER
Austria...
Count Ludovic of Austria...
FOSCA
I sensed in him a danger,
Deception,
Even violence.
I must admit to some degree
That it excited me.
FATHER AND MOTHER
Austria...
Count Ludovic of Austria...
COLONEL
(spoken) Once they were married,
once he'd received my uncle's sizable dowry,
he traveled a great deal, was unavailable to Fosca.
FOSCA
(spoken) He gambled away the dowry.
I was forced to go to my parents to borrow from what little savings they had left.
COLONEL
(spoken) Then one day, as she was coming from the market...
MISTRESS
(spoken) Excuse me. You're the wife of a Count Ludovic?
FOSCA
(spoken) Yes.
MISTRESS
You fool.
The man's a fraud.
A fake.
The trips he said he had to take abroad.
He took them so that he
Could be
With me.
He calls himself a count,
But he's not.
He's never had a title in his life!
He doesn't have a title,
But he does have a wife
And a child
In Dalmatia.
FOSCA
(spoken) No, you must be mistaken.
MISTRESS
(spoken) Oh, yes.
He only wants to bleed you,
Until the day he doesn't need you.
I warn you he'll abandon you
As he abandoned her
And me,
And countless others, I've no doubt.
I'm telling you, the man was born without
A heart
You fool...
FOSCA
(spoken) I confronted him with this information,
and he made no attempt to deny it.
LUDOVIC
Ah well, at last you know the truth.
Signorina.
But you as well must face the truth.
I've no desire to deceive you any more.
But do admit what you ignore:
We made a bargain, did we not?
And we got
What we bargained for.
You gave me your money, I gave you my looks
And my charm.
And my arm.
I would say that more than balances the books.
Where's the harm?
Now it's through.
If women can sell their looks,
Why can't a man,
If he can?
Besides, the money wasn't even yours.
It belonged to those ridiculous old bores,
Your parents.
Forgive me, my dear
But though you are no beauty, I fear
You are not quite the victim you appear.
Well, let us part by mutual consent.
And be content.
And so good luck and goodbye.
I must go
Oh, and yes, we haven't paid the rent
Since July...
Just so you know...
FOSCA
(spoken) I returned home, to find my parents impoverished and in poor health.
COLONEL
(spoken) Fosca's health failed...
FOSCA
A woman's like a flower...
COLONEL
(spoken) She began to suffer her first convulsions.
My aunt and uncle nursed them as best they could.
FOSCA
A flower's only purpose is to please...
COLONEL
(spoken) I spent months looking for the man.
FOSCA
Beauty is power...
COLONEL
(spoken) By ten, of course, he'd vanished.
FOSCA
Longing a disease...
COLONEL
(spoken) To this day, I dream of finding him and realizing my revenge.
FOSCA
(spoken) My father died not long thereafter.
COLONEL
How could I be so blind?
FOSCA
I couldn't face the world.
COLONEL
It took her many months to leave her bed.
FOSCA
It took me months to leave my bed.
COLONEL
(spoken) When her mother died, she had nothing really. No one.
FOSCA
(spoken) And so I went to stay with my cousin, who in some way felt responsible for my circumstances.
COLONEL
Why could I not admit the truth?
How could I not have seen through the veneer?
I told myself, "As long as she seems happy,
Why interfere?"
Or was I just relieved to know
That somebody would want her for a wife?
In war you know the enemy,
Not always so in life.
The enemy was love --
Selfishness really, but love,
All of us blinded by love
That makes everything seem possible.
You have to pay a consequence
For things that you've denied.
This is the thorn in my side.
MISTRESS
As long as you're a man,
You're what the world will make of you.
MISTRESS AND MOTHER
Whereas if you're a woman,
You're only what it sees.
COLONEL, FATHER AND LUDOVIC
A woman is a flower
Whose purpose is to please.
ALL
Beauty is power,
Longing a disease...
SUNRISE LETTER
CLARA
Giorgio,
I stand here
Staring at the sunrise,
Thinking how we've never seen a
Sunrise
Together,
Thinking that the sunrise
Only means another day
Without you,
And thinking:
Can our love survive
So much separation,
Keep itself alive,
Much less thrive?
If only you were here,
If I could feel you touch,
I wouldn't have such fear.
If only we had more than letters
Holding us together,
If we just could hold each other now,
The sunrise then could be
A think that I could see
And merely think,
"How beautiful..."
CLARA AND GIORGIO
Giorgio,
I now sit
Staring at the mirror --
You may not believe it but I swear,
As I stare,
There it is,
Plain as day:
A gray
Hair.
GIORGIO
Of which I was unaware,
Which is more than I can bear,
Which I'm ripping out right now
And am sending on to you
As a milestone of my age,
As a turning of the page...
Perhaps when next we meet,
I'll be a sorry sight.
You won't know who I am.
My hair completely white,
My face
A mass of wrinkles.
What will you feel then,
My Giorgio?
Time is now our enemy...
FOSCA
(spoken) You came a great distance to read her letters.
IS THIS WHAT YOU CALL LOVE?
GIORGIO
Is this what you call love?
This endless and insatiable
Smothering
Pursuit of me,
You think that this is love?
I'm sorry that you're lonely,
I'm sorry that you want me as you do.
I'm sorry that I fail to feel
The way you wish me to feel,
I'm sorry that you're ill,
I'm sorry that you're in pain,
I'm sorry that you aren't beautiful.
But yes, I wish you'd go away
And leave me alone!
Everywhere I turn,
There you are.
This is not love.
But some kind of obsession.
Will you never learn
When too far is too far?
Have you no concern
For what I feel,
What I want?
Love is what you earn,
And return,
When you care for another
So much that the other's
Set free.
Don't you see?
Can't you understand?
Love's not a constant demand,
It's a gift you bestow.
Love isn't sudden surrender,
It's tender and slow.
It must grow.
Yet everywhere I go,
You appear,
Or I know
You are near.
This is not love,
Just a need for possession.
Call it what you will,
This is not love,
This is the reverse
Like a curse,
Something out of control.
I've begun to fear
For my soul...
SOLDIERS' GOSSIP
TORASSO
Both of them were soaked to the skin.
RIZZOLLI
Where had they been?
AUGENTI
On the bluff.
COOK
Were they all alone?
TORASSO
No one knows.
COOK
You don't suppose -- ?
BARRI
Ugh!
RIZZOLLI
Gentlemen, enough!
TORASSO
Still, it would explain Signora's attitude --
AUGENTI
Why she come to every meal.
BARRI
It isn't for the veal.
TORASSO
And it would explain the Colonel's gratitude.
COOK
I hear he calls him "Giorgio" --
RIZZOLLI
But nobody is that brave.
AUGENTI
No, that's cheek.
RIZZOLLI
Nobody is that brave.
COOK
Wouldn't you like to peek?
TORASSO
Ugh!
BARRI
Gentlemen, I think I'll change my wager.
He'll be major next week.
RIZZOLLI
I'll say!
ALL
I'll say!
I'll say!
PASSION PAGE IV
