Lorenz & Manuela B

Lorenz
Is that Professor Manuela?

Lorenz
Her voice is every bit as fine as you might expect from the former leader of the Mittelfrank Troupe...

Lorenz
If it weren't for her drinking, and her woefully inadequate manners, she would fit right in with high society—wait a minute...

Manuela
♪As my mind clings to desperate thoughts... Here it comes, Horsebow Moon and summer's end...♪

Lorenz
That's my—oh, no. No, no, no!

Manuela
Oh, Lorenz! I heard you shout. Are you OK?

Lorenz
The poem! My poem! Forget it, I said! I asked you for one thing!

Manuela
And I told you it would be impossible for me to forget.

Lorenz
Certainly I understand, but setting it to music? And now singing it?

Manuela
Oh, yes! It makes for a beautiful song, doesn't it?

Manuela
I'm feeling so lonely and blue. My dearest has left. He is gone far away, and I'm here. All alone.

Manuela
And in my sadness, your poem... Well, it became a song for me to sing. It brought me a moment of happiness...

Lorenz
I do not know who spurned you, but I assure you my poem has nothing to do with any such feelings.

Lorenz
It is getting late. We should both turn in. I will take my leave now.

Manuela
Oh. I understand. You're leaving me too. Why? Am I too old to matter?

Lorenz
No, I never said any such thing. Why, I am sure there are plenty of men who would prefer a mature woman such as yourself.

Manuela
"Mature," he says. I knew it. You're all the same, you know.

Manuela
No one sees the person behind the voice. They just see me older today than yesterday. They say, "Oh, look what happened to her."

Manuela
Nobody sees my frustration, my resignation to be forever alone. But you do. It's all right there in your poem.

Lorenz
Please. I assure you, my poem was not about that at all. It was actually about the ideal of nobility.

Lorenz
The sentiment is that, someday, I know I will get what I want. There is no resignation in it, as you seem to be suggesting.

Manuela
Lorenz...

Manuela
I was sure the poem was more about someone lamenting their frailty and the loneliness of time's passing.

Manuela
But that's not it at all, is it? This is the story of someone impatient to get ahead. Who is afraid they'll never make it.

Lorenz
The speaker in the poem does lament his shortcomings. The road to reach his ideal is long.

Lorenz
It is a trial. A test. If he can just find his way through it, he knows he can move forward.

Lorenz
So I think you should try to move forward too. Because with a voice as talented as yours, how could you possibly fail?

Manuela
Lorenz... Someday you should let me sing this song in public.

Manuela
I think people who are battling through their own trials...they might find comfort in this. And I believe I'm the only one who can do your work justice.

Lorenz
Very well. You have my assent. On the condition that you do not attach my name to it.

Lorenz
Now, permit me to retire for the night. I require ample rest to maintain an adequate level of polish, you know.

Lorenz
I suppose if my poem must be set to music, then it had best be done by such a talented singer.