"" (Where are hose happy moments is an

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 ...

in Italian for

lyric soprano A lyric soprano is a type of operatic soprano voice that has a warm quality with a bright, full timbre that can be heard over an orchestra. The lyric soprano voice generally has a higher tessitura than a soubrette and usually plays ingenues and ot ...

from the third act of Mozart's 1786 opera ''

Le nozze di Figaro ''The Marriage of Figaro'' ( it, Le nozze di Figaro, links=no, ), K. 492, is a ''commedia per musica'' (opera buffa) in four acts composed in 1786 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with an Italian libretto written by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It premie ...

'' (''The Marriage of Figaro''). Countess Almaviva

lament A lament or lamentation is a passionate expression of grief, often in music, poetry, or song form. The grief is most often born of regret, or mourning. Laments can also be expressed in a verbal manner in which participants lament about something ...

s, in an initial recitative, that her husband has become a philanderer, and that she must rely on assistance from her maid to manipulate him. In the aria, she calmly remembers moments of love, and hopes, with increasing agitation, that her persistence may make him love her again. It is frequently performed in recitals and featured in anthologies of vocal music for lyric soprano.

Context

Mozart composed ''

'' in 1786, in his first collaboration with

Lorenzo Da Ponte Lorenzo Da Ponte (; 10 March 174917 August 1838) was an Italian, later American, opera librettist, poet and Roman Catholic priest. He wrote the libretti for 28 operas by 11 composers, including three of Mozart's most celebrated operas: ''The Marr ...

, based on the play (The Mad Day, or The Marriage of Figaro) by Beaumarchais. "Dove sono" is an aria of Countess Rosina from the third act, preceded by a

recitative Recitative (, also known by its Italian name "''recitativo''" ()) is a style of delivery (much used in operas, oratorios, and cantatas) in which a singer is allowed to adopt the rhythms and delivery of ordinary speech. Recitative does not repeat ...

, "" (Susanna's not come!). Alone on stage, the Countess regrets in the recitative that her husband, Count Almaviva, who had wooed her energetically (see: Beaumarchais' ''

The Barber of Seville ''The Barber of Seville, or The Useless Precaution'' ( it, Il barbiere di Siviglia, ossia L'inutile precauzione ) is an ''opera buffa'' in two acts composed by Gioachino Rossini with an Italian libretto by Cesare Sterbini. The libretto was based ...

'') and loved her ardently, has become an indiscriminate, overbearing philanderer; and that she must rely on assistance from her domestic staff in order to manipulate him. In the aria, she misses the tender moments of love that she remembers, and finally hopes that her persistence and fidelity may make him love her again. In Mozart's score, the aria follows the sextet in act 3 where Figaro and his enemies (Dr. Bartolo and Marcellina) learn that he is actually their long-lost son ("Riconosci in questo amplesso"). In some performances (e.g. Gardiner 1993), it precedes the sextet and follows the Count's aria "Vedro mentr'io sospiro". Moberly and Raeburn argued in 1965 that this is a more logical order, and that the order in the score was necessary so that the singer who doubled in the roles of Bartolo and Antonio in the premiere, , could change clothes. Ian Woodfield cites Alan Tyson's inspection of the autograph retrieved in 1977 from the

Jagiellonian Library Jagiellonian Library ( pl, Biblioteka Jagiellońska, popular nickname ''Jagiellonka'') is the library of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków and with almost 6.7 million volumes, one of the largest libraries in Poland, serving as a public libra ...

in Kraków which found no hint of such a reshuffle, but concedes that the hypothesis by Moberly and Raeburn was not disproved, only uncorroborated.

Music

The recitative is accompanied by strings, and the orchestra in the aria features

oboe The oboe ( ) is a type of double reed woodwind instrument. Oboes are usually made of wood, but may also be made of synthetic materials, such as plastic, resin, or hybrid composites. The most common oboe plays in the treble or soprano range. ...

s and bassoons prominently. The recitative, "" (Susanna's not come! I'm impatient to know what the Count said to her proposal.) is marked ''

Andante Andante may refer to: Arts * Andante (tempo), a moderately slow musical tempo * Andante (manga), ''Andante'' (manga), a shōjo manga by Miho Obana * Andante (song), "Andante" (song), a song by Hitomi Yaida * "Andante, Andante", a 1980 song by A ...

''. Strings move with lively motifs when she pauses. The melody of the aria, "" (Where are those happy moments of sweetness and pleasure?) begins similarly to the Agnus Dei from Mozart's ''

Coronation Mass A Coronation Mass is a Eucharistic celebration, in which a special liturgical act, the coronation of an image of Mary, is performed. The coronation of an image of Mary is an act of devotion to her. It expresses the belief that Mary as mother ...

'', K. 317, written in 1779. While in

F major F major (or the key of F) is a major scale based on F, with the pitches F, G, A, B, C, D, and E. Its key signature has one flat. Its relative minor is D minor and its parallel minor is F minor. The F major scale is: : F major is the ...

and in 3/4

time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...

in the mass, it is in C major and 2/4 time in the opera. Compared to the Countess's first aria, "Porgi amor" in act 2, the structure of "Dove sono" is more complex."Analysis of Two Arias from Mozart’s ''Le Nozze Di Figaro''"
lizhogg.com (2013) The first two stanzas, in the tempo of ''Andante'', are in A–B–A′

da capo Da capo (, also , ) is an Italian musical term that means "from the beginning" (literally, "from the head"). It is often abbreviated as D.C. The term is a directive to repeat the previous part of music, often used to save space, and thus is a ...

format, sung softly, with little melodic movement, while

s and bassoons fill her rests with expressive motifs which she later picks up. In the B-section, the music modulates to

G major G major (or the key of G) is a major scale based on G, with the pitches G, A, B, C, D, E, and F. Its key signature has one sharp. Its relative minor is E minor and its parallel minor is G minor. The G major scale is: Notable composi ...

and

G minor G minor is a minor scale based on G, consisting of the pitches G, A, B, C, D, E, and F. Its key signature has two flats. Its relative major is B-flat major and its parallel major is G major. According to Paolo Pietropaolo, it is the con ...

. The recapitulation in the A′-section has some significant changes in

harmonization In music, harmonization is the chordal accompaniment to a line or melody: "Using chords and melodies together, making harmony by stacking scale tones as triads". A harmonized scale can be created by using each note of a musical scale as a root ...

and orchestration. She alone begins the '' Allegro'' section of the third stanza, in

common time 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 val ...

, singing in increasing movement, and with increasing instrumental support, of her hope for a change in her husbands heart. The third stanza contains the same number of bars as the first two together. The aria concludes with an eight-bar postlude which musically resemble the introduction to "Porgi amor". Waldoff and Webster argue that "Dove sono" is musically related to the Countess's dramatic relationship with Susanna; specifically exemplified by similarities in the voice/wind instrument interaction in the Letter Duet and "Deh vieni".

Text

''Recitative'' E Susanna non vien! Sono ansiosa di saper come il Conte accolse la proposta: alquanto ardito il progetto mi par, e ad uno sposo sì vivace e geloso... Ma che mal c'è? Cangiando i miei vestiti con quelli di Susanna e i suoi co' miei... al favor della notte... Oh cielo, a qual umil stato fatale io son ridotta da un consorte crudel che, dopo avermi con un misto inaudito d'infedeltà, di gelosia, di sdegni prima amata, indi offesa e alfin tradita, fammi or cercar da una mia serva aita! ''Aria'' Dove sono i bei momenti di dolcezza e di piacer, dove andaro i giuramenti di quel labbro menzogner? Perché mai se in pianti e in pene per me tutto si cangiò, la memoria di quel bene dal mio sen non trapassò? Ah se almen la mia costanza, nel languire amando ognor, mi portasse una speranza di cangiar l'ingrato cor! And Susanna doesn't come! I'm anxious to know how the Count took the proposal. The scheme seems too bold to me, and to a husband so wild and jealous... But what harm is there? Changing my clothes with those of Susanna and hers with mine... shielded by the night... oh heavens, to what humble and dangerous state am I reduced by a cruel husband, who, after marrying me with an unheard of mixture of infidelity, jealousy and disdain first loved, then offended and at last betrayed me, now makes me seek my maid for help! Where are the beautiful moments of sweetness and pleasure, where are the promises gone of that deceitful tongue? Why has everything changed into tears and pain for me, why has the memory of that happiness never left my breast? Ah! If only my devotion in longing for his love could give me some hope of changing that ungrateful heart!

Usage

The journalist Bruce Scott considers that "" is one of the best known and most loved arias in the operatic repertoire. Beyond performances of the opera, it is frequently performed in recitals and featured in anthologies of vocal music for lyric soprano, often with the preceding recitative.

References

External links

*
"E Susanna non vien! ... Dove sono i bei momenti"
libretto critical edition, recordings; Digital Mozart Edition
Details, range, tessitura, Italian and English text
aria-database.com
"Mozart's ''The Marriage of Figaro'': Sleepless in Sevilla"
by Rhiannon Giddens, Cori Ellison, Susanna Phillips,

Dan Savage Daniel Keenan Savage (born October 7, 1964) is an American author, media pundit, journalist, and LGBT community activist. He writes ''Savage Love'', an internationally syndicated relationship and sex advice column. In 2010, Savage and his husba ...

, '' Met Aria Code'' (podcast and transcript), via

WNYC WNYC is the trademark and a set of call letters shared by WNYC (AM) and WNYC-FM, a pair of nonprofit, noncommercial, public radio stations located in New York City. WNYC is owned by New York Public Radio (NYPR), a nonprofit organization that ...

, 5 December 2019
"Mozart: Dove Sono from ''The Marriage of Figaro''"
Howard Goodall and Suzy Klein, ''The Story of Music in Fifty Pieces'', BBC Radio 3, 27 March 2014 * ,

Dorothea Röschmann Dorothea Röschmann (born 17 June 1967) is a German soprano. She is famous for her performances in operas by Mozart as well as Lieder. Early life Röschmann was born in Flensburg, and sang with the Flensburg Bach Choir by the age of seven. She ...

The Royal Opera The Royal Opera is a British opera company based in central London, resident at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. Along with the English National Opera, it is one of the two principal opera companies in London. Founded in 1946 as the Cove ...

(2006) * , Olga Mykytenko, Orchestra of the

National Opera of Ukraine The Kyiv Opera group was formally established in the summer of 1867, and is the third oldest in Ukraine, after Odessa Opera and Lviv Opera. The Kyiv Opera Company perform at the National Opera House of Ukraine named after Taras Shevchenko in ...

, Alla Kulbaba (conductor) {{Mozart operas, state=collapsed Arias from The Marriage of Figaro Soprano arias Compositions in C major 1786 compositions