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The two and a half sisters react to news of the impending ball.
CLORINDA and TISBE
How my heart is in a flutter!
I'm the fairest one of all,
And I'll turn him into butter.
Don Ramiro's bound to fall.
CINDERELLA
So it goes, each like the other,
And I'm ever at their call.
They must dance and I must suffer
Uninvited to the ball.
ALIDORO
Scorn at present I must smother,
Though I shudder at their gall.
Soon enough they will discover
Pride is headed for a fall.
Don Magnifico's visionary dream is interrupted....
DON MAGNIFICO
In my dream, as I lay napping,
Comes a vision that surpasses:
Lo, the most superb of asses!....
But the dream's interpretation --
What great omen has it sent us?
Ah, what clue? What explanation
For this message so momentous?
Festive chimes and bells are booming?
Better days ahead are looming.
Feathered wings? You and you!
Flying upward? Fortune blooming.
But the ass? Who could it be?
Ah, the finger points to me!
Who's the donkey? Plain as daylight
In a mirror of crystal glass:
Obviously, I am the ass!
Dandini, the servant posing as Prince, explains all.....
DANDINI
Now winding up the affair that I debated
Before so devastated:
Home at last from travels, educated,
I find Papa capitulated
And to the graveyard already relegated.
He, expiring, stipulated
That to preserve the royal line I must get mated,
Or have all confiscated.
If I find a tasty catch, my hook is baited.
For me that fish is fated.
I said it! I said it!
Though it's all so....complicated.
DON MAGNIFICO
(He even speaks like Dante!)
Dandini, reporting back to Prince Ramiro, sizes up the two sisters:
DANDINI
On the quiet, and off the record,
Undercover, surreptitious.....
After close investigation
I report with consternation,
Both are full of affectation,
Hard as nails, cold as ice.
They are lazy and malicious,
Silly, shallow, vain and vicious --
Otherwise, they're very nice.
Don Magnifico's extravagant hopes for a royal marriage hit a snag:
DANDINI
Not to stand on ceremony,
As Prince I'm but a phony.
And the true prince comes to town today,
So it's time I throw the mask away.
With a sigh of resignation,
I resume my old vocation.
Meet Dandini, groom and lackey!
Meet Dandini, Prince of valets!
Master barber, just the man for you!
Have a haircut, shave or shampoo.
Confusion reigns:
ALL
Convoluted knot to untangle,
Blows so abrupt from every angle.
Strain increases, tension heightens;
As we tug, the knot retightens.
Groping, grappling, still more baffling;
Each solution starts unravelling.
Wrangling, wrestling with this riddle,
In the middle I'm entrapped.
All leads to the ultimate happy ending.
CINDERELLA
Sad no longer among the cinders, ah!
No more I'll sob alone -- No!
Like a song, a dream, a winter's
Tale, my sorrows all are flown.
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