Act I
Early morning in Régine Saint Laurent’s Paris apartment. It is July 14 – the national day of France.
Régine (La Prima Donna) wakes up after a troubled night’s sleep. Her new maid, Marie, speaks to her about her drunken, violent husband while Régine agonizes over returning to the stage after a six-year-long break. She speaks of the role of her life, as Aliénor, the strong and powerful Queen of France and England, in an opera written for her when she was at the peak of her career.
Régine’s butler, Philippe, enters with his assistant François. It upsets Philippe to see Régine and Marie together when Régine should be preparing for an interview with a journalist, which has escaped her mind. After Philippe has sent Régine off to get changed, François helps him to prepare for the meeting. Philippe becomes nostalgic for the old days of splendour and fame, now only a distant memory.
The sound of the doorbell announces the arrival of the journalist, André Letourneur. Régine makes a flamboyant entrance.
Régine becomes emotional when André asks her about Aliénor d’Aquitaine, her very last performance. André sees more than the legend he has admired ever since he studied to become a tenor at the conservatory. He urges her to resume her singing career. She sits at the piano and together they sing the iconic lovers’ duet from Aliénor d’Aquitaine. When they reach the passionate climax Régine’s voice breaks.
Philippe intervenes, and they all agree that Régine needs a rest. André says he will return later that evening.
An unexpected moment occurs between Régine and André witnessed by Marie who has lingered in the room. With unease, she notices how Régine is filled with new hope for the future.
Act II
Evening
Preparations for the national day celebrations are underway. Marie sings of the simple life at home in Picardy. She compares the naivety of youth with the hectic and materialistic life in Paris.
As Régine warms up she tries to understand what went wrong during the interview. When she is on her own, she can reach that coveted high note, but each time she tries to find a deeper meaning and attempts to express it she fails. In order to be able to sing Aliénor, or any other role, ever again, she will need to listen to a recording she has never dared to hear. She thinks about what has been as she grapples with her low confidence and her nerves.
Finally, as she listens to the legendary recording, she is transported back in time to when she performed the lovers’ duet for the first time.
King Henry II of England from Aliénor d’Aquitaine enters the garden in the shape of André and declares his love for the queen. Régine becomes Aliénor and performs the magic scene to perfection. Then Régine wakes up from her reveries, realizing that she cannot repeat her earlier success and that she will never again return to the stage.
Philippe’s world falls apart, and he decides to vanish from Régine’s life just as the doorbell announces the journalist’s return.
André delivers an unwelcome surprise: he is engaged to be married, and he has brought his fiancée along. André asks Régine for a final favour: could she please sign his copy of Aliénor d’Aquitaine?
La Prima Donna signs her last autograph, then she steps out on the balcony alone as the July 14 fireworks light up the sky.
