Elixir of Love - Giannetta's gossip with the ladies
From the Bel Canto Opera production of The Elixir of Love: Giannetta, the village gossip, calls the signorine and signore together to confirm the rumour that the poor waiter Nemorino has become the heir to his late uncle's shipping fortune.
LADIES: It's unbelievable!
GIANNETTA: Yet highly possible.
LADIES: It's inconceivable.
GIANNETTA:...but more than probable
LADIES: How do you know? How did you hear? Who told you so? From whom? From where?
GIANNETTA: Quiet! Please keep your voices down!
No one has heard of it..
It's still a secret.
Don't breathe a word of it...
It's not official.
The postman said it.
He said he'd read it,
then made me swear I'd never tell a soul.
LADIES: If it's the postman, it must be true!
He reads our letters before we do.
What did he say? What did he say?
GIANNETTA: He steamed a letter and peaked inside..
Nemorino's Uncle Giuseppe has died,
In Lloyds Triestino, he owned every share,
and named Nemorino his only heir.
And now the boy is a millionaire...
but he doesn't know it!
LADIES: He doesn't know
GIANNETTA: So don't repeat it. Piano!
LADIES: We'll be discreet. We'll be discreet. Piano
GIANNETTA and LADIES: Piano!
It's so amazing, it's really funny,
Someone so dopey with all that money!
The girls so mocking, who couldn't bear him,
will now come flocking to try to snare him.
But no one knows it -
we're honour bound
not to expose it,
Don't spread it round.
Hush hush, hush hush, hush hush
we are honour bound
GIANNETTA: Piano!
GIANNETTA and LADIES: It's so amazing, it's really funny,
Someone so dopey with all that money!
The girls so mocking, who couldn't bear him,
will now come flocking to try to snare him.
But no one knows it -
we're honour bound
not to expose it,
Don't spread it round.
GIANNETTA and LADIES: Hush hush. Quiet
It must remain a secret
Keep it under wraps
Now Nemorino's rich as Croesus
He may be seeking a wife...perhaps
Now Nemorino's rich as Croesus
But it's a secret...don't spread it round.
Shhh!
words © Tom Boyd