Coffee Cantata Lyrics


Daughter Liesgen (Soprano),  Cafe Owner Erzähler (Tenor), Father Schlendrian (stick in the mud) (Bass)

1.  Recitative Tenor - cafe owner:

Be quiet, do not chat, And listen to what happens now:
Here comes Mr. Schlendrian with his daughter Liesgen,
He grumbles like a grizzly bear;  hear for yourselves, what she has done to him!

2.  Aria Bass - father:

With children, aren't there a hundred thousand aggravations!
Whatever I, all the time and every day, tell my daughter Liesgen, slides on by with no effect.

3.  Recitative B & S - father and Liesgen:

Schlendrian:   
You naughty child, you wild girl, ah! When will I achieve my goal: get rid of the coffee for my sake!

Liesgen:   
Father sir, but do not be so harsh!  If I couldn't, three times a day, be allowed to drink 
                 my little cup of coffee, in my anguish I will turn into a shriveled-up roast goat.

4.  Aria Soprano - Liegen:

Ah! How sweet coffee tastes, more delicious than a thousand kisses, milder than muscatel wine.
Coffee, I have to have coffee, and, if someone wants to pamper me, ah, then fill up my coffee again!

5. Recitative B S

Schlendrian:   
If you don't give up coffee for me,  you won't go to any wedding parties, or even go out for walks.

Liesgen:  Okay then!  Only leave my coffee alone!

Schlendrian:   
Now I've got the little monkey!  I will buy you no whalebone dress of the latest fashion.

Liesgen:   I can easily put up with that.

Schlendrian:   
You may not go to the window and watch anyone passing by!

Liesgen:   
This too; but be merciful and let my coffee stay!

Schlendrian:   
You'll also not receive from my hand, a silver or gold ribbon for your bonnet!

Liesgen:  Sure, sure!  Just leave me my pleasure!

Schlendrian:  You naughty Liesgen,  you grant all of that to me?


7.  Recitative B S

Schlendrian:  Now do what your father says!

Liesgen:  In everything but coffee.

Schlendrian:  
All right then!  So you will have to content yourself with never having a husband.

Liesgen:   Ah yes! Father, a husband!

Schlendrian:  I swear that it will never happen.

Liesgen:   
Until I give up coffee?  All right! Coffee, lie there now forever!
                 Father sir, listen, I won't drink none.  

Schlendrian:  So finally you'll get one!

8.  Aria S

Liesgen:  Even today, dear father, make it happen!  Ah, a husband!  Indeed, this will suit me well!
If it would only happen soon, that at last, instead of coffee, before I even go to bed, I might gain a sturdy lover!

9.  Recitative T  (Cafe owner):
 
Now old Schlendrian goes and seeks How he, for his daughter Liesgen, might soon acquire a husband;
but Liesgen secretly spreads the word: no suitor comes in my house
unless he has promised to me himself and has it also inserted into the marriage contract,
that I shall be permitted to brew coffee whenever I want.

10.  Chorus (Trio) S T B  (all three):

Cats do not give up mousing,  girls remain coffee-sisters.
The mother adores her coffee-habit, and grandma also drank it,
so who can blame the daughters!  


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Welcome to the course:  "The Music of Johann Sebastian Bach & his Sons"

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