"(traffic hums)" "("Cosi Fan Tutte" by Wolfgang Mozart)" "[Voiceover] This is the story of three loves, perhaps four." "The women were all sisters, and I was the man in their lives, at least some of the time." "Their father was my father's friend and, so naturally, when I went to Mannheim to give concerts, I stayed with them." "The father was a fairly good musician." "In fact, they were all talented." "Especially the eldest, Louisa." "She had a lovely voice." "She sang like an angel." "Louisa." "Each of the daughters was beautiful in her own way, and I was a stranger in a strange city." "I was young and alone, and of course I fell in love." "It was like a tale from The Arabian Nights, a prince from another kingdom and the three princesses who vied for his love." "So, this is my story, our story, an opera about love." "If you're not interested in love and think you don't like opera, well." "I'm not much for moralizing, in my music even less than in my life." "Music is its own meaning." "But sometimes people, you know, are happier if they think art is meaningful rather than merely pleasureful." "So here it is at the beginning for those among you who are too impatient to wait until the end to find out what it's all about." "My philosophy of love." "A song, rich in intent, profound in its implications, as beautiful as it is deep." "("Die Entführung aus dem Serail" by Wolfgang Mozart)" "[Voiceover] He came in the winter and, yes, brought springtime into everyone's life." "We all fell just a little in love with him." "Of course, he was very young, but he knew so much." "He helped me with my music and taught me the right way to sing." "Everyone said he was a genius." "He was certainly very gifted and knew a great deal." "You know, he had been performing and composing almost from the time he was an infant." "I became quite good." "[Voiceover] From the first moment I saw him." "[Voiceover] I always loved him, even as a child." "It was wonderful loving him like that." "Knowing he could never suspect my real feelings." "It was my secret." "("Die Zauberflote:" "Introduktion" by Wolfgang Mozart)" "[Voiceover] In a way, I led a very sheltered life." "It's true, I was a raging success in half a dozen countries before I was 14." "I performed for the most illustrious crowned heads in Europe." "Women of all ages adored me." "They fussed over me." "They threw themselves at me." "It sounds like boasting, I know, but there's no other way to describe it." "Did you know that when I was seven years old," "I proposed to Marie Antoinette, who was also a child?" "She agreed to marry me." "You don't believe it, well, it's true." "I didn't lack for opportunities, I can tell you that." "But, all the same, I was still very innocent." "I was always falling in love." "It was like a chronic illness." "But what a delicious one." "Falling in and out of love like a butterfly going from flower to flower." "Every woman made my heart beat faster." "("Le Nozze Di Figaro:" "Non so piu cosa son" by Mozart)" "[Voiceover] It was perfect, the two of us." "He would write beautiful songs for me, and I would sing them." "His songs would become famous through me." "I loved him, all of us did." "Under his guidance, my voice improved tremendously." "[Voiceover] I can hardly speak." "[Voiceover] I was always the baby in the family." "How I hated it." "It was humiliating to be treated like that in front of him." "Why can't time move faster, and then the differences in our ages won't matter so much." "When he's 36, I'll be 28." "When he'll be 48, I'll be 40." "No, I'm not too young for him." "If only he'd wait for me." "("Cosi Fan Tutte:" "Ah Guarda, Sorella" by Mozart)" "[Voiceover] I'm so happy." "What do I know of love, a strange sensation that had no name?" "Was this it?" "Who could I turn to?" "It's not so easy being young." "Could I trust them?" "Could they tell me?" "("Le Nozze Di Figaro" by Wolfgang Mozart)" "[Voiceover] I had never felt anything like this before." "It was Louisa who touched the most secret part of my heart." "She was my dream love." "("Cosi Fan Tutte:" "Un'aura Amorosa" by Mozart)" "To be in love again, it was wonderful." "But this time it was true love." "("Die Zauberflote" by Wolfgang Mozart)" "[Voiceover] It always happens that way." "The curse of being the middle child." "The oldest has all the good fortune." "The youngest is always pampered." "But what about me?" "I felt as if my life were over." "("Cosi Fan Tutte:" "Ah, Che Tutto In Un Momento" by Mozart)" "Perhaps one has to suffer for one's love." "To test it, to purify it, to be worthy of it." "Perhaps agony is its own sweet reward." "[Voiceover] There is no reward for a troubled heart." "But who can guard themselves against the pain of love?" "We mustn't let this come between us." "Even though we love him, and she doesn't." "[Voiceover] I didn't want it to happen this way." "How can I comfort you, my dear sisters?" "Would you believe me if I told you that your unhappiness is only temporary?" "In a month or two, you'll laugh, thinking back on your imagined grief." "Oh, I love you both so much." "(graceful operatic music)" "I didn't ask for any of this." "It's not my fault that he adores me." "I'm not to blame if I can't return his love." "It's a gift I never asked for." "It was nothing more than innocent flirtation." "I never encouraged him, never." "I didn't want it to happen like this." "("Cosi Fan Tutte:" "Sento, O Dio" by Wolfgang Mozart)" "Perhaps I made a mistake in turning him down." "Who would have thought that he would become so famous?" "That was on my mind when I married." "That he would never have enough money." "I wasn't mistaken, was I?" "A pauper's grave." "To tell the truth, I didn't think he was a genius." "With clever young people, you never know how they're going to turn out." "Maybe if I had?" "What's the use of wondering?" "I wouldn't have done it differently, even if I could." "My life is a happy one." "We became friends again years later." "It was unavoidable." "But I think, at the time, he took it very badly." "("Cosi Fan Tutte:" "Non Son Cattivo Comico" by Mozart)" "[Voiceover] I was in despair." "("Die Zauberflote" by Mozart)" "I went away and didn't see any of them for three years." "I thought that I could learn to forget." "I threw myself into my work." "I forgot nothing." "(graceful operatic music)" "[Voiceover] He left us." "He left me." "I know I'll never see him again." "How can I endure such anguish?" "Can a heart withstand such agony and not burst?" "I don't know how I'll survive." "("Die Zauberflote:" "Ach, ich fühl's" by Mozart)" "[Voiceover] I suffered too, my angel." "In my anguish, like a thunderbolt from heaven," "I remembered you, my darling Constanza." "Your name was prophetic." "How you looked at me with love so tenderly, with such shy modesty." "Could it be that you loved me then, and still love me?" "Dare I hope?" "Or must I continue living in this abyss?" "How could I have been so blind as not to see what was before me all the time?" "("Die Zauberflote:" "Act I Finale" by Mozart)" "I thought of you night and day." "Being away from you was like being in exile." "Deprived of my senses, drifting in a void." "("Die Zauberflote:" "Wie stark ist nicht" by Mozart)" "I had to come back to you, my dream woman." "("Die Zauberflote:" "Dies Bildnis ist bezaubernd" by Mozart)" "I had to woo you as if it were not a ritual" "I had acted out a dozen times before." "[Voiceover] I had to let you in me as if it were not a fantasy that I had dreamed a thousand times before." "("Cosi Fan Tutte:" "Fra Gil Amplesii" by Mozart)" "[Voiceover] To love again." "Can I explain how wonderful it is to someone unfortunate enough not to know?" "("Die Zauberflote:" "Dies Bildnis ist bezaubernd" by Mozart)" "[Voiceover] He's lost to me forever." "To know that and have the courage to continue living." "Can I explain how painful it is to someone fortunate enough not to know?" "("Le Nozze Di Figaro:" "L'ho Perduta" by Mozart)" "[Voiceover] My poor darling, my poor Sophie." "She's so young, so vulnerable." "I've done nothing to hurt her, but I know my joy is her grief." "Go to her, comfort her." "I have happiness to spare." "Come, my dear, come and live with us." "("Le Nozze Di Figaro:" "Cosa Mi Narri" by Mozart)" "I'm so happy." "Fate has been kind to me." "Who would've dreamed?" "I feel so sorry for the poor thing." "We can't let this or anything else ever come between us." "We must comfort and support each other always." "Yes." "Yes." "("Cosi Fan Tutte:" "Soave Sia Il Vento" by Mozart)" "[Voiceover] Could I have foreseen how fragile my own happiness was," "I would not have been so generous with my pity." "("Cosi Fan Tutte:" "Fra Gil Amplessi" by Mozart)" "[Voiceover] Who can understand it?" "She loved me, I loved her." "Why did I always think of Louisa?" "It was her image which burned like a red hot coal in my heart." "I adore her still." "I'm excited by the thought of her, knowing she can never be mine." "Or was this yet another daydream?" "Poor Constanza." "I would do anything not to hurt her." "("Le Nozze Di Figaro:" "E Susanna Non Vien" by Mozart)" "[Voiceover] Her misery gave me no pleasure." "Nor did it lighten my burden or console me." "The only cure for me would be his love." "And that would never be mine." "("Don Giovanni:" "Masetto, Senti Un Po" by Mozart)" "("Die Zauberflote:" "Ach, ich fühl's" by Mozart)" "("Cosi Fan Tutte:" "Sento, O Dio" by Mozart)" "What came of all this useless suffering?" "All this wasted love?" "An opera about two sisters played by two sisters." "(speaks foreign language)" "Perhaps he wanted have written the opera." "Cosi Fan Tutte in any event." "And if he hadn't, certainly something else would've been written in its stead." "As for me, I prefer something a little more modern." "* We're just two little girls" "* From Little Rock" "* We live on the wrong side of the tracks" "* But the gentlemen friends who used to call" "* They never did seem to mind at all" "* They came to" "* The wrong side of the tracks" "* There's someone broke my heart" "* In Little Rock" "* So I up and left the pieces there" "* Like a little lost lamb" "* I roamed about" "* I came to New York" "* And I found out" "* That men" "* Are the same way everywhere" "* I was bound and determined" "* To be wined and dined and ermined" "* And I worked at it" "* All around the clock" "* Now one of these days" "* In my fancy clothes" "* I'm goin' back home" "* And punch the nose" "* Of the one who broke my heart" "* The one who broke my heart" "* The one who broke my heart" "* In Little Rock, Little Rock, Little Rock" "* Duh da dee da da dee da da" "(laughing)" "(graceful orchestral music)" "[Voiceover] We were inextricably bound to each other." "Would we all be chained to this merry-go-round for the rest of eternity?" "Unless the circle is somehow broken." "I can't bear this." "[Voiceover] Perhaps like a Greek myth, we'll merge into a single shimmering star and shoot off into the darkest night to illuminate a tiny portion of the sky." "Or maybe we'll become, the four of us, a constellation in the sky so that young lovers can look up and see us there forever." "("Cosi Fan Tutte:" "Muoio D'affano" by Mozart)" "[Voiceover] How unjust the gods are." "If only we could all have what we wanted." "If everyone's dream could've come true." "(graceful operatic music)" "[Voiceover] If only I could be sure that all this waiting and yearning hasn't been for nothing." "But if it was for a purpose, what could that purpose possibly be?" "Perhaps it was enough just to love in silence without the love being acknowledged." "Not unrequited love, but unrecognized love." "Constanza loves him in her way." "But where is she now that he needs her?" "She is off nursing one of her imaginary ailments at the mineral bathes, while he is dying." "I sit here and watch helplessly." "[Voiceover] I can feel its cold hand on my shoulder." "If only I could live a few more years." "No, I regret nothing." "There's nothing I would've changed." "I lived for music." "Music is everything." "I lived for love." "Love, too, is everything." "("Die Zauberflote:" "Dies Bildnis ist bezaubernd" by Mozart)" "[Voiceover] Could this be my reward?" "To help ease your journey into eternity, where perhaps we can be truly united, just you and I, who deserved each other the most." "But what does deserving have to do with any of it?" "("Die Zauberflote:" "Ach, ich fühl's" by Mozart)" "("Les Noces de Figaro" by Mozart)"