Puccini’s opera, La Rondine (The Swallow), is filled with the most beautiful music, and the stage production from this 2009 New York Met production is fantastic.
In this final scene of the opera, Ruggero has received permission from his mother to marry Magda. But when he shows her the letter, Magda tells him that she is tainted by her former life and can never be his wife. Both hearts break as they sing out the final duet of the opera.
Because the subtitles in this video are in French, the lyrics in English appear below:
Magda (reading a letter) Give her my kiss.
Ruggero: (drawing Magda close to him) A kiss from my mother!
Magda: (drawing back suddenly) No! I can’t receive it! I can’t, no!
Ruggero: You can’t?
Magda: No! I must not deceive you!
Ruggero: You? You?
Magda: Ruggero! My past cannot be forgotten. I cannot enter your home!
Ruggero: Why? Ah! Who are you? What have you done?
Magda: I came to you tainted!
Ruggero: It’s not important!
Magda: Ah! You don’t know everything!
Ruggero: I only know that you are mine!
Magda: You don’t know everything!
Ruggero: It’s not important!
Magda: I have passed amid shame and glitter triumphantly!
Ruggero: Don’t tell me any more! I don’t want you to!
Magda: You gave me a treasure: your trust and love. But I must not deceive you!
Ruggero: What deception?
Magda: I can be your lover, but not the wife that your mother wants and believes I am!
Ruggero: Quiet! Your words are my damnation! What will I do without you, the woman who revealed how much one can love? But don’t you know that you are destroying my life?
Magda: And don’t you know that my agony is so great that I feel that I am dying? But I must not hesitate any longer: I cannot enter and defile your home!
Ruggero: No! Don’t say that! No! Look at my anguish!
Magda: Today, your mother calls you! And I must abandon you because I love you! I don’t want to ruin you!
Ruggero: (holding Magda close to him) No! Don’t leave me alone! No!But how can you leave me when I’m tormented with tears, and cling to you in desperation! Oh my divine love, Oh life of my life, don’t break my heart!
Magda: Don’t despair, listen: If destiny wills that our love is over, still think of me! Think that the sacrifice that I am making is being made for you!
Ruggero: No! Stay! Don’t leave me alone!
Magda: I don’t want to destroy you! (Magda kneels next to the weeping Ruggero)
My soul is the only one you know, and my soul is with you forever! Let me speak to you as a mother speaks to her beloved son. When you recover, you will remember our love, and return to your serene home. I will again fly away with my sorrows.
Ruggero: My love.
Magda: Don’t say anything. Let all the grief be all mine.
