La Donna E Mobile
Composer:
Giuseppe Verdi
Genre: Classical
Decade: before 1923
Submitted by: Russell Ambrose
Description:
"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"). Its reprise in the last act is chilling, as Rigoletto realizes from the sound of the Duke`s lively voice coming from within the tavern (offstage), that the body in the sack over which he has grimly triumphed is not that of the Duke after all: Rigoletto had paid Sparafucile, an assassin, to kill the Duke but Sparafucile deceived him by killing Gilda, Rigoletto`s beloved daughter, instead.
by: Russell Ambrose