[CLARA]
I'm so happy,
I'm afraid I'll die
Here in your arms
What would you do
If I died
Like this -
Right now,
Here in your arms?
That we ever should have met
Is a miracle
[GIORGIO]
No, inevitable -
[CLARA]
Then inevitable, yes,
But I confess
It was the look --
[GIORGIO]
The look?
[CLARA]
The sadness in your eyes
That day
When we glanced
At each other in the park
[GIORGIO]
We were both unhappy
[CLARA]
Unhappiness can be seductive
[GIORGIO]
You pitied me...
[BOTH]
How quickly pity leads to love
[CLARA]
All this happiness
Merely from a glance
In the park.
So much happiness
So much love --
[GIORGIO]
I thought I knew what love was
[CLARA]
I wish we might have met so much sooner
I could have given you --
[GIORGIO]
I thought I knew what love was
[CLARA]
-- My youth
[GIORGIO]
I thought I knew how much I could feel
[CLARA]
All the time we lost...
[GIORGIO]
I didn't know what love was.
[CLARA]
I've never known what love was.
[GIORGIO]
But now --
[CLARA]
And now --
[BOTH]
-- I do.
It's what I feel with you.
The happiness I feel with you.
[CLARA]
So much happiness --
[GIORGIO]
You are so beautiful...
[CLARA]
-- Happiness by chance in a park.
[GIORGIO]
Not by chance,
By necessity --
[CLARA]
Surely, this is happiness -
[GIORGIO]
- by the sadness that we saw in each other.
[CLARA]
- no one else has ever felt before!
[BOTH]
Just another love story,
That's what they would claim.
Another simple love story -
Aren't all of them the same?
[CLARA]
No, but this is more,
we feel more!
[BOTH]
This is so much more!
(Smiling at each other)
Like every other love story.
Some say happiness
comes and goes.
then this happiness
is a kind of happiness
No one really knows.
[GIORGIO]
I thought I knew what love was.
[CLARA]
I'd only heard what love was.
[GIORGIO]
I thought it was no more than a name for yearning.
[CLARA]
I thought it was what kindness became.
[GIORGIO]
I'm learning -
[CLARA]
I thought where there was love there was shame.
[GIORGIO]
- that with you -
[CLARA]
But with you -
[BOTH]
- there's just happiness.
[CLARA]
Endless happiness ...
[spoken] What?
[GIORGIO]
[spoken] Not now ...
[CLARA]
[spoken] Tell me ... please.
[GIORGIO]
[spoken] I received my orders from headquarters.
I've been transferred to the Fourth Brigade.
[CLARA]
[spoken] When?
[GIORGIO]
[spoken] I leave in five days. Clara, don't look so sad.
[CLARA]
[spoken] You're the one that makes me happy.
[GIORGIO]
[spoken] We'll make the most of the next four days.
I'll steal as much time as I can. Then after I leave,
we'll write to each other ever day.
We'll make love with our words.
You'll be with me ever day, Clara.
[CLARA]
[spoken] I must go. I'm expected.
[GIORGIO]
God, you are so beautiful.
I love to see you in the light,
Clear and beautiful, memorize
Every inch,
every part of you
to take with me.
[CLARA]
[spoken] Giorgio...
[GIORGIO]
Your feet so soft,
As if they'd never touched the ground.
[CLARA]
[spoken] I must go ...
[GIORGIO]
Your skin so white, so pure, so delicate.
Your smell so sweet, your breathe so warm.
I will summon you in my mind,
I'm painting you indelibly on my mind.
[CLARA]
Let me go ...
[GIORGIO]
We must fill every moment.
[CLARA]
All this happiness ended by a word in the dark.
[GIORGIO]
Oh my love, oh my darling ...
[CLARA]
So much happiness wasn't meant to last.
[GIORGIO]
I am here,
I am with you
I am yours.
[CLARA]
I never knew what love was.
[GIORGIO]
Your skin,
your silken hair ...
[CLARA]
I always thought I didn't deserve it.
[GIORGIO]
Your breasts, your lips ...
[CLARA]
I didn't know what love was.
[GIORGIO]
I want you every minute of my life ...
[CLARA]
I don't know how I'll live when you're gone!
[GIORGIO]
I will always be here.
[CLARA]
I don't know how I'll live ...
Giorgio ...
Don't leave me ...
[COLONEL]
[spoken] Thank you Lieutenant.
[DOCTOR]
[spoken] How was "Rigoletto"?
[TORASSO]
[spoken] Terrible. These touring companies get no better.
[LOMBARDI]
[spoken] Nor do you.
[TORASSO]
[spoken] I sing to lighten the weight of your cooking.
[BARRI]
[(spoken) (examining his plate)] Sergeant, what is this?
[LOMBARDI]
[spoken] It's veal.
[BARRI]
[spoken] Again? We had veal four days ago.
And from the looks of it, it was this veal.
[LOMBARDI]
[spoken] Lieutenant Barri, if I hear -
[RIZZOLLI]
[spoken] Colonel, I've heard a rumor that the King is
about to sign a treaty with the French.
[DOCTOR]
[spoken] Really?
[COLONEL]
[spoken] I've heard no such rumor, Major.
[DOCTOR]
[spoken] Where did you come by this information?
[RIZZOLLI]
[spoken] In town.
[COLONEL]
[spoken] You can't believe everything you hear in a whorehouse.
[RIZZOLLI]
[spoken] That is where Garibaldi got much of his information, sir.
[DOCTOR]
[spoken] Ah, so that's why you go there!
[COLONEL]
[spoken] Ah, Captain Bachetti. Welcome.
We wondered when you were going to arrive.
May I introduce Doctor Tambourri, Major Rizzolli ...
[TORASSO]
[spoken] Lieutenant Torasso.
[BARRI]
[spoken] Lieutenant Barri.
[LOMBARDI]
[spoken] Sergeant LOMBARDI
[BARRI]
[spoken] Our cook.
[COLONEL]
[spoken] Come. Come and join us.
[GIORGIO]
[spoken] Could you post this one for me?

[LOMBARDI]
[spoken] You'll have to excuse our rather limited menu,
Captain.
It's difficult to grow vegetables in this mountain soil.
[DOCTOR]
[spoken] We're a bit isolated here, Captain.
Not only from anything green and edible,
but also from life and ideas.
[RIZZOLLI]
[spoken] I just add vinegar to everything
[TORASSO]
[spoken] Captain Bachetti, the COLONEL has been telling
us of your triumphs pinning down the Russian infantry.
[GIORGIO]
[spoken] I'm not sure that my actions worried your attention.
[TORASSO]
[spoken] Come, come. Didn't you rescue a wounded man
in the midst of fire and then carry him on your horse to camp?
[GIORGIO]
[spoken] Only to our battalion.
[BARRI]
[spoken] Say you brought him back to camp!
Why settle for being half a hero when full-fledged
is just a white lie away?

Passion is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by James Lapine. The story was adapted from Ettore Scola's film Passione d'Amore. Central themes include love, sex, obsession, illness, passion, beauty, power and manipulation. Passion is notable for being one of the few projects that Stephen Sondheim himself conceived, along with Sweeney Todd and Road Show.

Set in 19th century Italy, the plot concerns a young soldier and the changes in him brought about by the obsessive love of Fosca, his Colonel's homely, ailing cousin.