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

canzone Literally 'song' in Italian, a canzone (; : ''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 which ...

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 List of compositions by Giuseppe Verdi, his operas. He was born near Busseto, a small town in the province of Parma ...

opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

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 c ...

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

tenor A tenor is a type of male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. Composers typically write music for this voice in the range from the second B below m ...

Raffaele Mirate Raffaele Mirate (3 September 1815 – November 1895) was a celebrated Italian operatic tenor who had an active career from the 1830s through the 1860s. Known for his intelligent phrasing and bright and powerful vocal timbre, he was regarded as an ...

's performance of the

bravura In classical music a bravura is a style of both music and its performance intended to show off the skill of a performer. John Alexander Fuller-Maitland, ''A dictionary of music and musicians (A.D. 1450-1889)'p. 271-272/ref> Commonly, it is a vir ...

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

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. 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 re ...

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 with a

time signature A time signature (also known as meter signature, metre signature, and measure signature) is an indication in music notation that specifies how many note values of a particular type fit into each measure ( bar). The time signature indicates th ...

of 3/8 and a

tempo In musical terminology, tempo (Italian for 'time'; plural 'tempos', or from the Italian plural), measured in beats per minute, is the speed or pace of a given musical composition, composition, and is often also an indication of the composition ...

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 stud ...

extends from F to A with a

tessitura In music, tessitura ( , , ; ; ) is the most acceptable and comfortable vocal range for a given singer (or, less frequently, musical instrument). It is the range in which a given type of voice presents its best-sounding (or characteristic) tim ...

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 Theme or themes may refer to: * Theme (Byzantine district), an administrative district in the Byzantine Empire governed by a Strategos * Theme (computing), a custom graphical appearance for certain software. * Theme (linguistics), topic * 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 the tonic and the subdominant ("lower dominant") or because its position below the tonic is symm ...

(G). Once the Duke has finished singing, however, the theme is once again repeated; this time, it includes the last—and conclusive—bar and finally resolves to the tonic of B major. 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 A ritornello (Italian; "little return") is a recurring passage in Renaissance music and Baroque music for orchestra or chorus. Early history The earliest use of the term "ritornello" in music referred to the final lines of a fourteenth-century ...

Libretto

The lyrics are based on a phrase by King

Francis I of France Francis I (; ; 12 September 1494 – 31 March 1547) was King of France from 1515 until his death in 1547. He was the son of Charles, Count of Angoulême, and Louise of Savoy. He succeeded his first cousin once removed and father-in-law Louis&nbs ...

, omen are fickle, and who trusts them is a fool. that he, deceived by one of his numerous mistresses, reputedly engraved on a window pane.

Victor Hugo Victor-Marie Hugo, vicomte Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romanticism, Romantic author, poet, essayist, playwright, journalist, human rights activist and politician. His most famous works are the novels ''The Hunchbac ...

used this phrase verbatim in his play, '' Le roi s'amuse'', on which ''Rigoletto'' is based.

Fleury François Richard Fleury François Richard (25 February 1777, Lyon – 14 March 1852, Écully), sometimes called Fleury-Richard, was a French painter of the Lyon School. A student of Jacques-Louis David, Fleury-Richard and his friend Pierre Révoil were precu ...

depicted in an 1804 oil painting Francis engraving the lines. 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,

, 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 on, it became a

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

staple and was later used extensively in television advertisements. Football fans chanted new words to the tune of the melody. When all of Italy was under lockdown due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, 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 numerou ...

in Jean-Pierre Ponnelle's 1982 film ''Rigoletto'' *, Pavarotti, Sting,

Whitney Houston Whitney Elizabeth Houston (August 9, 1963 – February 11, 2012) was an American singer, actress, film producer, model, and philanthropist. Commonly referred to as "Honorific nicknames in popular music, the Voice", she is List of awards and no ...

Elton John Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, songwriter and pianist. His music and showmanship have had a significant, lasting impact on the music industry, and his songwriting partnership with l ...

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhattan), 57t ...

, 9 April 1994 Rainforest Foundation Fund benefit concert
"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, public-domain sheet music, music scores. The project use ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Donna e mobile, La 1851 compositions Arias by Giuseppe Verdi Compositions in B major Opera excerpts Tenor arias Quotations from music 1850s neologisms 1850s quotations Italian words and phrases