La donna è mobile

La donna è mobile [la ˈdɔnna ɛ ˈmɔːbile] ("The woman is capricious" or " O how deceitful are women's hearts ") is the canzone of the Duke of Mantua from the third act of Giuseppe Verdi's opera Rigoletto from 1851.

The text goes back to a saying of Franz I : “ Souvent femme varie. Bien fol est qui s'y fie! “(The woman is often deceptive. A fool who trusts her!), Which Victor Hugo had taken literally into his piece Le roi s'amuse , the model for Rigoletto .

The German translation is by Johann Christoph Grünbaum , the German premiere was on January 30, 1853 in Stuttgart.

music

Sung by Enrico Caruso
(recording from 1908)

Play media file

Javier Camarena , Gran Teatre del Liceu , 2017

libretto

		sung (free)	more literal
1.	La donna è mobile Qual piuma al vento, Muta d'accento E di pensiero. Semper un amabile, Leggiadro viso, In pianto o in riso, È menzognero.	Oh, how deceitful are women's hearts; may they complain, may they joke. Often a smile plays for her features; tears often flow, everything is a lie.	The woman is capricious as feathers in the wind, she easily changes her words and her mind. Always a lovely, pretty face, crying or laughing, it's deceptive.
	Refrain La donna è mobil ' Qual piuma al vento, Muta d'accento E di pensier'.	If you also have oaths as pledge, you have built on light sand .	The woman is capricious as feathers in the wind, she easily changes her words and her mind.
2.	È semper misero Chi a lei s'affida, Chi le confida, Mal cauto il core! Pur mai non sentesi Felice appieno Chi su quel seno, Non liba amore!	If your heart longs for sweet hours, a dear love will soon be found. But bitter remorse will be felt by those who only want to be tied to one.	He who relies on her, who gullibly entrusts his heart to her , becomes unhappy . And yet he is not happy who does not taste love from her breast .
	refrain

Individual evidence

^ Sebastian Werr: Musical Drama and Boulevard: French Influences on Italian Opera in the 19th Century . JB Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2002, ISBN 978-3-476-45291-7 , p. 82–83 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
^ Ernst Krause : Oper A – Z: An opera guide , Deutscher Verlag für Musik, Leipzig 1979, p. 536
^ Piave, Francesco Maria ; Verdi, Giuseppe : Rigoletto , piano reduction, Italian / English . G. Schirmer Inc. , New York 1902, p. 173 ff .

[1] Sebastian Werr: Musical Drama and Boulevard: French Influences on Italian Opera in the 19th Century . JB Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2002, ISBN 978-3-476-45291-7 , p. 82–83 ( limited preview in Google Book search).

[2] Ernst Krause : Oper A – Z: An opera guide , Deutscher Verlag für Musik, Leipzig 1979, p. 536

[3] Piave, Francesco Maria ; Verdi, Giuseppe : Rigoletto , piano reduction, Italian / English . G. Schirmer Inc. , New York 1902, p. 173 ff .