[Verse 1] On a storm-torn sea by Illyria’s side A brother and sister torn by the tide The salt and the sorrow blur the line Between your heart and mine She binds her hair, takes up a name A borrowed face in a dangerous game Cesario walks where Viola stood In doublet, hose, and misunderstood [Pre-Chorus] Oh love’s a mask and love’s a blade A whispered vow in masquerade [Chorus] If music be the food of love, then play on through the night Let longing pour like wine in gold candlelight Oh Orsino sighs, Olivia weeps While truth in shadow sleeps In a world where nothing’s as it seems We’re tangled in our dreams [Instrumental break] [Verse 2] A duke who drowns in his own refrain Romantic storms and sweet disdain He sends his page to plead his case Not knowing love stands face to face Olivia dressed in mourning black Feels her guarded fortress crack Not for the duke with practiced art But for the boy who steals her heart [Pre-Chorus] Oh cross the wires and spin the wheel What’s false can burn, what’s hidden’s real [Chorus] If music be the food of love, then play on through the night Let violins confess what lips can’t quite Oh Orsino dreams, Olivia burns While fate in silence turns In a hall of mirrors bright We’re wrong and yet we’re right [Instrumental break] [Bridge] Sir Toby laughs with wine-stained breath Sir Andrew boasts of love and death Maria plots by candle’s gleam And Malvolio smiles in yellow dream Stockings crossed and garters tied Pride parades and truth denied A letter forged, a lesson learned How quickly self-love can be burned [Breakdown: soft, reflective] O time untwist this knotted thread Raise the living from the dead Let twins be twins beneath the sun Let hearts confess what they’ve become [Final Chorus] If music be the food of love, then play on, play on Let midnight fade to hopeful dawn For Viola stands revealed at last And grief is in the past In Illyria’s golden light All masks fall out of sight [Outro: harps, lutes] So here’s to fools and lovers crossed To what we found and what was lost For in disguise we come to see Love writes its own identity.
