The Portrait Song

[anghraine]

Unrelated to the crossposting, but I've been nourishing my Darcy/Elizabeth feelings with the P&P musical (technically called Austen's Pride, these days). I always really liked "The Portrait Song," and it turns out that I still do. I keep getting bits of it stuck in my head, and while it's far from perfect, I love the arc of the song?

It begins with Elizabeth at Pemberley, going over to the portrait, so it's like:

ELIZABETH: 

Who are you? I thought I knew
The man in the portrait
You appear, and seem to be
All the things that I refused to see

Then they run into each other and stammer out their lines as they meet, and we get:

DARCY:

I want her here
I was sincere
That night when I proposed
How I behaved sent her away
I know that now, please let her stay

So that's pretty much what you'd expect from a P&P musical. But then Austen just straight-up interrupts them to sing to herself:

You can tell the story of
Second chances.
They've let go
Of first impressions, although slowly.
They can fall in love.

Then Elizabeth and Darcy not only start singing together, and it's—like, callbacks to their original verses, but then their separate parts just start blurring together:

ELIZABETH:
Has he forgiven me?

DARCY:
Has she forgiven me?

ELIZABETH and DARCY:
It's shameful, the way I behaved.
...Shall we start again?

:')

DARCY:
And could she ...

ELIZABETH:
And could he ...

DARCY:
Could she ever
   ELIZABETH:
   Could he still

DARCY and ELIZABETH:
...Love me?

:)))))))))

Comments

[mosylu]

I . . . may need this in my life, like, immediately. Do you know where I can get this soundtrack?

[anghraine]

The live versions (I think?) of some of the songs are on Youtube. There are Elizabeth and Austen's duets "When I Fall in Love" (https://youtu.be/LvDc9MUJJzc) and "Had I Been in Love" (https://youtu.be/4_PyOgnQ62Q), as well as "The Portrait Song" (https://youtu.be/sSUo8z_xDc0), and the finale (https://youtu.be/9HslH5uz9vU). I'm fond of those ones mostly for the shots from the performance itself (although my favourite song in itself is "The Portrait Song," I've probably listened to the finale just as much for the adorable shots of Darcy and Elizabeth).

But also, some of the official recordings are on their Soundcloud, here: https://soundcloud.com/jas-pride-and-prejudice/sets/demo.