[MARQUIS, spoken]
Benvenuto, I implore you, this is your last chance. You know how much my monarch admires your genius. He will give you work, money, everything!

[OTTAVIANO, spoken]
Open the door! In the name of the great Duke, open the door!

[SOLDIERS]
Make way for the noblest of nobility
Make way or suffer his rebuke
Bow low to show humility
Bow, you peasants, in the presence of the Duke!

[ENSEMBLE]
Sing his praises to the skies
Alessandro the Wise!
Hail the man you subsidize
Alеssandro the Wise!

[DUKE]
A hundred yеars or so ago the Medici—
That's my family—began to win renown
When lovely Florence, be it to her credit, she
Got grandpapa's papa to rule the town

[WOMEN]
Sing out, sing out, or have it played orchestrally
Sing out the while you worship at his shrine
[DUKE]
There never was a fellow who, ancestrally
Could boast a genealogy like mine
Lorenzo the Magnificent
And What's His Name?—the Wondrous
And many and many another
Whose deeds were great and thunderous
We've many blossoms in our pedigree
But I'm the flower of the family

[ENSEMBLE]
He's the flower of the family

[DUKE]
I'm aesthetic, poetic
To beauty I'm sympathetic

[ENSEMBLE]
A patron of the arts is Alessandro!

[DUKE]
My weakness is chicness
If the lady has no antiqueness

[ENSEMBLE]
The ladies lose their hearts to Alessandro!
[DUKE]
My art collection features Botticelli and da Vinci
But also I collect young women who are plump and pinchy
I sponsor the celestial
But I don't run down the bestial
That combination makes 'em idolize

[ENSEMBLE]
Alessandro the Wise!

[DUKE]
Alessandro the Wise!
I've a yearning for learning
To which I am always returning

[ENSEMBLE]
It's women, wine and song for Alessandro!

[DUKE]
Patrician, musician
And a bit of a mathematician

[ENSEMBLE]
It's figures all day long with Alessandro!

[DUKE]
I try to raise the public taste whenever I can contrive it
So paintings pornographic I will only show in private
By action I embellish both the heavenly and the hellish
[ENSEMBLE]
That combination makes 'em idolize

[DUKE]
Alessandro the Wise!

[ENSEMBLE]
Alessandro the Wise!

[NARRATOR]
Despite the title of that song
I always feel they get it wrong
For when a Duke speaks, as a rule
He comes across as, well, a fool
For instance, Ben's unfinished work
Was commissioned as a ducal perk
Yet still the Duke, who's rather rash
Likes it so much he offers cash
His cousin, Ottaviano
A charming man, as villains go
Tries to make him see the light
By pointing out it's his by right

[OTTAVIANO, spoken]
But your Highness has bought it. 

[DUKE, spoken]
I have? Then why didn't I take it?

[OTTAVIANO, spoken]
Because it wasn't finished. 

[DUKE, spoken]
Why not?

[OTTAVIANO, spoken]
Because Cellini attacked Maffio. 

[DUKE, spoken]
Then why hasn't he hanged?

[OTTAVIANO, spoken]
Because you pardoned him. 

[DUKE, spoken]
Why the devil did I do that?

[OTTAVIANO, spoken]
Because the statue wasn't finished. 

[DUKE, spoken]
I think we ought to buy it. Is that why we came here?

[OTTAVIANO, spoken]
Forgive me, cousin. I can't remember. 

[DUKE, spoken]
No! It was about Maffio! I remember that myself. 

[NARRATOR, spoken]
Now Cellini's life's in danger
Things begin to get yet stranger
For Angela, scantily attired to pose
Returns and complete throws
The Duke off guard. He now decides
To take this nymph where he resides
The summer palace is the place
Just look at poor Cellini's face
He's overcome and starts to grieve
Then the Duke says: Don't dare leave
Your house. Now, as the pretty maid
Is forced to leave her handsome blade
To join the Duke and all his throng
She starts to sing a farewell song