The fire alarm went off last night during the San Francisco Opera
production of Verdi's "Don Carlos" just as the tenor sang about both a
real fire he had wished for in the cool night air of Fontainebleau and
the allegorical fire making his bosom heave.  (http://tinyurl.com/t0l8).

Trying to find the exact words is difficult, even with WWW handy, mostly
because of the rarity of the "French" version (containing the opening
scene in France, and Schiller's original German translated by Mery and
du Locle into Italian, then put into French by somebody or other).

As my copy of the libretto is still on loan (hint: it's time to return
it!), on-line research shed little light on the specifics.  No French
text, apparently, only the Italian text for the "French scene":

"Quando il ciel per tenda abbiam,
Sterpi chiedere alla terra
Per la fiamma noi dobbiam!
Gia! Gia! La stipa die
La bramata scintilla
E la fiamma ecco gia brilla.
Al campo, allor che splende
Cosi vivace e bela
La messaggera ell'e
Di vittoria... o d'amor."

 [Babel Fish, helpfully: "When the ciel for it stretches abbiam, Sterpi
to ask the earth For the flame we dobbiam!  Already!  Already!  It crams
die the coveted spark and the here already tipsy flame.  To the field,
allor that she shines Therefore lively and she bleats the messenger ell'
is Of Victoria...  or amor."]

and, if you try the original (Schiller), guess what - Look, Ma, no
Fontaineableau: http://ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext04/fs29w10.txt.  The
search goes on.  Already!  Already!

Janos Gereben/SF
www.sfcv.org
[log in to unmask]