"" (; "Woman is fickle") is the Duke of Mantua's

canzone Literally "song" in Italian, a ''canzone'' (, plural: ''canzoni''; cognate with English ''to chant'') is an Italian or Provençal song or ballad. It is also used to describe a type of lyric which resembles a madrigal. Sometimes a composition w ...

from the beginning of act 3 of

Giuseppe Verdi Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for his operas. He was born near Busseto to a provincial family of moderate means, receiving a musical education with the h ...

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...

Rigoletto ''Rigoletto'' is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the 1832 play '' Le roi s'amuse'' by Victor Hugo. Despite serious initial problems with the Austrian censors who had co ...

'' (1851). The canzone is famous as a showcase for

tenor A tenor is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The low extreme for tenors is wide ...

s. Raffaele Mirate's performance of the bravura

aria In music, an aria ( Italian: ; plural: ''arie'' , or ''arias'' in common usage, diminutive form arietta , plural ariette, or in English simply air) is a self-contained piece for one voice, with or without instrumental or orchestral accompa ...

at the opera's 1851 premiere was hailed as the highlight of the evening. Before the opera's first public performance (in Venice), the aria was rehearsed under tight secrecy: a necessary precaution, as "" proved to be incredibly catchy, and soon after the aria's first public performance it became popular to sing among Venetian

gondoliers ''The Gondoliers; or, The King of Barataria'' is a Savoy Opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It premiered at the Savoy Theatre on 7 December 1889 and ran for a very successful 554 performances (at that time the ...

. As the opera progresses, the

reprise In music, a reprise ( , ; from the verb 'to resume') is the repetition or reiteration of the opening material later in a composition as occurs in the recapitulation of sonata form, though—originally in the 18th century—was simply any repe ...

of the tune in the following scenes contributes to Rigoletto's confusion as he realizes from the sound of the Duke's lively voice coming from the tavern (offstage) that the body in the sack over which he had grimly triumphed was not that of the Duke after all: Rigoletto had paid Sparafucile, an assassin, to kill the Duke, but Sparafucile had deceived Rigoletto by indiscriminately killing Gilda, Rigoletto's beloved daughter, instead.

Music

The aria is in the key of

B major B major (or the key of B) is a major scale based on B. The pitches B, C, D, E, F, G, and A are all part of the B major scale. Its key signature has five sharps. Its relative minor is G-sharp minor, its parallel minor is B minor, and ...

with a

time signature The time signature (also known as meter signature, metre signature, or measure signature) is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats (pulses) are contained in each measure (bar), and which note va ...

of 3/8 and a

tempo In musical terminology, tempo ( Italian, 'time'; plural ''tempos'', or ''tempi'' from the Italian plural) is the speed or pace of a given piece. In classical music, tempo is typically indicated with an instruction at the start of a piece (ofte ...

mark of ''allegretto''. The

vocal range Vocal range is the range of pitches that a human voice can phonate. A common application is within the context of singing, where it is used as a defining characteristic for classifying singing voices into voice types. It is also a topic of st ...

extends from F to A with a

tessitura In music, tessitura (, pl. ''tessiture'', "texture"; ) is the most acceptable and comfortable vocal range for a given singer or less frequently, musical instrument, the range in which a given type of voice presents its best-sounding (or characte ...

from F to F. Eight bars form the orchestral introduction, followed by a one-bar general rest. Each verse and the refrain covers eight bars; the whole aria is 87 bars long. The almost comical-sounding theme of "" is introduced immediately. The theme is repeated several times in the approximately two to three minutes it takes to perform the aria, but with the important—and obvious—omission of the last bar. This has the effect of driving the music forward as it creates the impression of being incomplete and unresolved, which it is, ending not on the tonic (B) or dominant (F) but on the

submediant In music, the submediant is the sixth degree () of a diatonic scale. The submediant ("lower mediant") is named thus because it is halfway between tonic and subdominant ("lower dominant") or because its position below the tonic is symmetrical to ...

(G). Once the Duke has finished singing, however, the theme is once again repeated; but this time it includes the last, and conclusive, bar and finally resolving to the tonic of

. The song is in

strophic form Strophic form – also called verse-repeating form, chorus form, AAA song form, or one-part song form – is a song structure in which all verses or stanzas of the text are sung to the same music. Contrasting song forms include through-composed, ...

with an orchestral ritornello.

Libretto

La donna è mobile Qual piuma al vento, muta d'accento e di pensiero. Sempre un amabile, leggiadro viso, in pianto o in riso, è menzognero. ''Refrain'' La donna è mobil'. Qual piuma al vento, muta d'accento e di pensier'! È sempre misero chi a lei s'affida, chi le confida mal cauto il cuore! Pur mai non sentesi felice appieno chi su quel seno non liba amore! ''Refrain'' La donna è mobil' Qual piuma al vento, muta d'accento e di pensier'! Woman is flighty. Like a feather in the wind, she changes in voice and in thought. Always a lovely, pretty face, in tears or in laughter, it is untrue. ''Refrain'' Woman is fickle. Like a feather in the wind, she changes her words and her thoughts! Always miserable is he who trusts her, he who confides in her his unwary heart! Yet one never feels fully happy who from that bosom does not drink love! ''Refrain'' Woman is fickle. Like a feather in the wind, she changes her words, and her thoughts! Poetic adaptation Plume in the summerwind Waywardly playing Ne'er one way swaying Each whim obeying; Thus heart of womankind Ev'ry way bendeth, Woe who dependeth On joy she spendeth! ''Refrain'' Yes, heart of woman Ev'ry way bendeth Woe who dependeth On joy she spends. Sorrow and misery Follow her smiling, Fond hearts beguiling, falsehood assoiling! Yet all felicity Is her bestowing, No joy worth knowing Is there but wooing. ''Refrain'' Yes, heart of woman Ev'ry way bendeth Woe who dependeth On joy she spends.

Popular culture

The tune has been used in popular culture for a long time and for many occasions and purposes. Verdi knew that he had written a catchy tune, so he provided the score to the singer at the premiere, Raffaele Mirate, only shortly before the premiere and had him swear not to sing or whistle the song outside rehearsals. And indeed, people sang the tune the next day in the streets. Early, it became a

barrel organ A barrel organ (also called roller organ or crank organ) is a French mechanical musical instrument consisting of bellows and one or more ranks of pipes housed in a case, usually of wood, and often highly decorated. The basic principle is the sam ...

staple, and later was used extensively in television advertisements. Football fans chanted new words on the melody, and it was used in video games and films. When all of Italy was under lockdown due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, a video of opera singer Maurizio Marchini performing "La donna è mobile" and other arias and songs from his balcony in Florence went viral.

References

External links

Luciano Pavarotti Luciano Pavarotti (, , ; 12 October 19356 September 2007) was an Italian operatic tenor who during the late part of his career crossed over into popular music, eventually becoming one of the most acclaimed tenors of all time. He made numero ...

in Jean-Pierre Ponnelle's 1982 film ''Rigoletto''
"La donna è mobile"
translated by Randy Garrou, Aria Database * Piano-vocal score,

IMSLP The International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP), also known as the Petrucci Music Library after publisher Ottaviano Petrucci, is a subscription-based digital library of public-domain music scores. The project, which uses MediaWiki softwa ...

*
Portrait of the aria in the online opera guide www.opera-inside.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Donna e mobile, La 1851 compositions Arias by Giuseppe Verdi Compositions in B major Opera excerpts Tenor arias