EVITA LIBRETTO - CONCEPT ALBUM
ACT TWO (Continued)
8. WALTZ FOR EVA AND CHE
CHE
Tell me before I waltz out of your life
Before turning my back on the past
Forgive my impertinent behaviour
But how long do you think this pantomime can last?
Tell me before I ride off in the sunset
There's one thing I never got clear
How can you claim you're our savior
When those who oppose you
Are stepped on or cut up or simply disappear?
EVA
Tell me before you get onto your bus
Before joining the forgotten brigade
How can one person like me, say
Alter the time-honored way the game is played?
Tell me before you get onto your high horse
Just what you expect me to do
I don't care what the bourgeoisie say
I'm not in business for them but to give all my descamisados
A magical moment or two
There is evil
Ever around, fundamental
System of government quite incidental
So why go bananas
Chasing Nirvanas
And failing?
Better to do
What you can for a few
Than to lie - much
Plainer sailing
CHE
Tell me before I seek worthier pastures
And thereby restore self-esteem
How can you be so short-sighted
To look never further than this week or next week
To have no impossible dream?
EVA
Allow me before you slink off to the sidelines
To mark your adieu with three cheers
To ask you just who'd be delighted
To know that I'll tackle
The world's greatest problems
From war to pollution
No hope of solution
Even if I live for one hundred years?
There is evil
Ever around, fundamental
System of government quite incidental
So go if you're able
To somewhere unstable
And stay there
Whip up your hate
In some tottering state
But not here dear
Is that clear, dear?
Oh what I'd give for a hundred years!
But the physical interferes
Every day more - oh my Creator!
What is the good of the strongest heart
In a body that's falling apart?
A serious flaw
I hope You know that . . .
CHE
I always thought my country right or wrong
I used to say hey here's where I belong
But that's a joke
I might as well have been
As loyal to
El Salvador, Afghanistan, the South of France, Japan, Hong Kong!
Oh my insecticide!
9. SHE IS A DIAMOND
OFFICERS
It's all very well - to a certain extent
For the lady at the side of the president
To show an interest - in affairs
But let's not be blind to the drift of events
She's eclipsing the strength of the government
She should return to - below stairs
She will never win our hearts
She's a woman for a start
She holds no elected post
She's an ornament at most
PERÓN
But on the other hand she's all they have
She's a diamond in their dull grey lives, and that's the
Hardest kind of stone - it usually survives
And when you think about it, can you recall
The last time they loved anyone at all?
She's not a bauble you can brush aside
She's out there doing what we just talked about, example
Gave us back our businesses, got the English out
And if you think about it - well why not do
One or two of the things we promised to?
But on the other hand she's slowing down
She's lost a little of that magic drive - but I would
Not advise those critics present to derive
Any satisfaction from her fading star
She's the one who's kept us where we are
OFFICERS
She's the one who's kept you where you are
10. Dice Are Rolling/Eva's Sonnet
PERÓN
Dice are rolling, the knives are out
Would-be presidents are all around
I don't say they mean harm but they'd each give an arm
To see us six feet underground
EVA
But we still have the magic we've always had!
My descamisados still worship me
We arrived thanks to them and no one else!
No thanks to your generals - a clutch of stuffed cuckoos!
PERÓN
It's not a question of a big parade
Proving we're big with the mobs on the street
Our problems are closer than that
They're along the corridor
EVA
You're wrong - the people - my people -
PERÓN
The people belong to no one!
They are fickle, can be manipulated
Controllable, changeable
In the end the people don't matter - however much they love you now
It matters more that as far as my stuffed cuckoos are concerned
You don't officially or politically exist!
EVA
So I don't exist!
So I count for nothing!
Try saying that on the street
When all over the world
I am Argentina!
Most of your generals wouldn't be recognized by their own mothers!
But they'll admit I exist when I become vice-president
PERÓN
That won't work . . .
We've been through all of this before
They'd fight any attempt to make you vice-president tooth and nail
You'd never overcome them with a hundred rallies
And even if you did -
EVA
Yes?
PERÓN
Your little body's slowly breaking down
You're losing speed, you're losing strength - not style, that goes on
Flourishing forever, but your eyes, your smile
Do not have the sparkle of your fantastic past
If you climb one more mountain it could be your last
EVA
I'm not that ill
Bad moments come but they go
Some days are fine some a little harder
But I'm no has been
It's the same old routine
Have you ever seen
Me defeated?
Don't you forget what I've been through and yet
I'm still standing -
And if I am ill - it could even be to your advantage!
PERÓN
This is not a case of a sympathetic word in the gossip column
Because you've got a cold!
I'm trying to point out that you might die!
This talk of death is chilling, an assault -
Upon ourselves and it will be our fault
If we allow
These morbid septic thoughts
To rule us now
To bring our reason clattering to a halt
I do not need a final sacrifice
Just let me know of any sane device
To shift your strength, your undisputed powers
To places where your mighty deeds
Your golden words
Have not so far cut too much ice
EVA
Then I must now be vice president
(Eva's Sonnet)
Those shallow mean pretenders to your throne
Will come to learn ours is the upper hand
For I do not accept this is not known
In rich established parcels of our land
To face the storms so long and not capsize
Is not the chance achievement of a fraud
Conservatives are kings of compromise
It hurts them more to jeer than to applaud
And shall have my people come to choose
The couple who shall wear their country's crowns
In thousands in my squares and avenues
Emptying their villages and towns
Where every soul in home or shack or stall
Knows me as Argentina - that is all
O I shall be a great vice-president
This is not a gambler's final throw
Forced upon me by those bastards who've
Only longed to see me up and go
It's not an unprepared or panicked move
Which just goes to prove
I'd be good for you
Eva vice-president is good for you
11. EVA'S FINAL BROADCAST
OFFICERS
That was the over the top unacceptable suggestion
We didn't approve but we couldn't prevent
The games of the wife of the president
But to give her pretensions encouragement!
She's out of her depth and it's out of the question
CHE
Forgive my intrustion Evita I just have to see
How you admit you have lost - a brand new experience! - we
Got it set up!
Fixed you a broadcast
And you're so good on the air!
EVA
The actress hasn't learned the lines you'd like to hear
How could she feel defeated by such cringing mediocrities?
She's sad for her country
Sad to be defeated by her own weak body
She's sad for her people
She hopes they will know she did not betray them
(A microphone is switched on. Eva is now on the air.)
I want to tell the people of Argentina
I've decided I should decline
All the honours and titles you've pressed me to take
For I'm contented -
Let me simply go on
As the woman who brings her people to the heart of Perón!
Don't cry for me Argentina
For the truth is I shall not leave you
Though it may get harder
For you to see me
I'm Argentina
And always will be
Have I said too much? There's nothing more I can think of to say to you
But all you have to do is look at me to know that every word is true
12. MONTAGE
In her last hours, images, people and events from her life flow through Eva's mind, while the nation's grief
knows no bounds - to the mass of the people she has become a saint, nothing less.
EVA hears fragments from:
CHE - 'She had her moments . . . '
MAGALDI - 'Eva beware your ambitions . . .'
GETTA/WORKERS - 'A new Argentina . . .'
AN OFFICER - 'Statesmanship is more . . .'
FUND MANAGER - 'Accountants only slow things down . . .'
The WALTZ
While choirs sing her praises
PERÓN
High flying, adored, so young, the instant queen, a
Rich beautiful thing of all the talens, a cross between a
Fantasy of the bedroom and a saint
And you were just a backstreet girl
Hustling and fighting
Scratching and biting
High flying, adored, did you believe in your wildest moments
All this would be yours, that you'd become the lady of them all?
Were there stars . . .
13. LAMENT
EVA
The choice was mine and mine completely
I could have any prize that I desired
I could burn with the splendour of the brightest fire
Or else - or else I could choose time
Remember I was very young then
And a year was forever and a day
So what use could fifty, sixty, seventy be
I saw the lights and I was on my way
And how I lived! How they shone!
And how soon the lights were gone!
The choice was mine and no one else's
I could have the millions at my feet
Give my life to people I might never meet
Or else to children of my own
Remember I was very young then
Thought I needed the numbers on my side
Thought the more that loved me the more loved I'd be
But such things cannot be multiplied
Oh my daughter! Oh my son!
Understand what I have done!
(The moment Eva dies, embalmers move in to prepare her fragile body)
EMBALMERS
Eyes, hair, face, image
All must be preserved
Still life displayed forever
No less than she deserved
Preserved
FINIS
