Live from Lincoln Center (TV Series)

New York City Opera: A Little Night Music (1990)

George Lee Andrews: Frederik Egerman

Quotes 

• Frederik Egerman : They told me at the theater where to find you.

  Desiree Armfeldt : Fredrik!

  Frederik Egerman : Hello, Desiree.

  Desiree Armfeldt : So it was you! I peered and peered and said, "Is it? Can it be? Is it possible?" Then of course, when you walked out after five minutes, I was sure.

  Frederik Egerman : Was my record that bad?

  Desiree Armfeldt : Terrible. You walked out on my Hedda in Helsingborg, and my sensational Phaedra in Eskilstuna.

• Desiree Armfeldt : Your little bride... so, you took her home, tucked her up in her cot, with her rattle and her wooly penguin!

  Frederik Egerman : Figuratively speaking.

  Desiree Armfeldt : And then you came to me.

  Frederik Egerman : I wish you'd ask me why.

  Desiree Armfeldt : Why did you come to me?

  Frederik Egerman : For old times' sake? For curiosity? To boast about my wife? To complain about her, perhaps? Oh, hell, why am I being such a lawyer about it? This afternoon, while I was taking my nap...

  Desiree Armfeldt : So you take afternoon naps now!

  Frederik Egerman : Hush! I had the most delightful dream.

  Desiree Armfeldt : About?

  Frederik Egerman : You.

  Desiree Armfeldt : Ah. What did we do?

  Frederik Egerman : Well, as a matter of fact, we were in that little hotel in Malmo. We'd been basking in the sun all day...

  Desiree Armfeldt : When my back got so burned, it was an agony to lie down, so you...

  Frederik Egerman : As vivid as... well, very vivid. So you see, my motives for coming here are what might be called... mixed.

• Desiree Armfeldt : [Frederik has just finished telling Desiree about his wife, who is still a virgin after eleven months of marriage]  A virgin?

  Frederik Egerman : A virgin.

  Desiree Armfeldt : Eleven months.

  Frederik Egerman : Eleven... months.

  Desiree Armfeldt : No wonder you dreamed of me!

  Frederik Egerman : Well, at least it was you I dreamed of, which would indicate a kind of retroactive fidelity, doesn't it?

  Desiree Armfeldt : At least!

  Frederik Egerman : Desiree... would it seem insensitive if I were to ask you...

  [he stops himself] 

  Frederik Egerman : I can't say it.

  Desiree Armfeldt : Say it, darling.

  Frederik Egerman : Would you...?

  [he gestures to the bedroom] 

  Desiree Armfeldt : Of course. What are old friends for?

• Desiree Armfeldt : Shall I tell you why I really invited you here? When we met again and we made love, I thought, "Maybe here it is at last. A chance to turn back, to find some sort of coherent existence after so many years of muddle." Of course, there is your wife... but I thought perhaps - just perhaps, you might be in need of rescue, too?

  Frederik Egerman : When my eyes are open, and I look at you, I see a woman that I have loved for a long time, who entranced me all over again when I came to her rooms, who gives me such genuine pleasure, that, in spite of myself, I came here for the sheer delight of being with her again. A woman who could rescue me? Of course. But when my eyes are not open, which is most of the time, all I see is a girl in a pink dress teasing a canary, running through a sunlit garden to hug me at the gate, as if I'd come from Timbuktu, instead of the municipal courthouse three blocks away!

  [the music begins. Desiree sings "Send In The Clowns." Just before the last verse, Frederik speaks] 

  Frederik Egerman : Desiree, I'm sorry. I never should have come. To flirt with rescue when one has no intention of being saved... Do try to forgive me.

  [He leaves her. Desiree sings the last verse in spotlight. The light fades out on her weeping quietly] 

• Frederik Egerman : [Frederik has just played Russian Roulette - and almost lost. Desiree is the first person he sees when he wakes up]  I don't suppose this is my heavenly reward, is it?

  Desiree Armfeldt : Hardly, dear, with me here.