La donna è mobile

For the 1942 Italian film (La donna è mobile), see The Lady Is Fickle.

"La donna è mobile" ("Woman is fickle") is the cynical Duke of Mantua's canzone from Giuseppe Verdi's opera Rigoletto (1851). The inherent irony is that it is the callous playboy Duke himself who is mobile ("inconstant"). A reprise appears within the last act.

The canzone is famous as a showcase for tenors. Raffaele Mirate's performance of the bravura aria at the opera's 1851 premiere was hailed as the highlight of the evening.^{[citation needed]} It has been recorded by Enrico Caruso, Mario Lanza, Plácido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti, Andrea Bocelli, Juan Diego Flórez, Jussi Björling, Vitas and hundreds of others. Before this song's first public performance (in Venice), it was rehearsed under tight secrecy: a necessary precaution, because it proved to be catchy and soon after its first public performance every gondolier in Venice was singing it.

The music

The almost comical-sounding theme of La donna è mobile is introduced immediately, and runs as illustrated (transposed from the original key of B major). The theme is repeated several times in the approximately two 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, having left off not on the tonic or dominant but on the submediant. Once the Duke has finished singing, however, the theme is once again repeated; but this time including the last, and conclusive, bar and finally resolving to the tonic. The song is strophic in form with an orchestral ritornello.^{[citation needed]}

Libretto

Original Italian[citation needed]	English translation[citation needed]	Alternative translation[citation needed]
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! e di pensier'! 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! e di pensier'! 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, she's untrue. Refrain Woman is flighty. like a feather in the wind, she changes in voice and in thought, and in thought! and in thought! 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 flighty. Like a feather in the wind, she changes her words, and her thoughts! and her thoughts!	A woman is fickle (or erratic/flighty). Like a feather in the wind, she changes her words (You can't tell what she's really saying or thinking) and lovely face, graceful visage, (or beautiful face) that, in tears or in laughter, is deceitful. Refrain (A) Woman is fickle. Like a feather in the wind, she changes her words, and her thoughts! and her thoughts! Weeping or laughing, (or wretched) is untrustworthy. He who confides in her his incautious (reckless) heart! Yet one never feels fully happy, who from that bosom/breast does not sip/taste love. Refrain (A) woman is fickle. Like a feather in the wind, she changes in tone and in thought, and in thought! and in thought!