What are the lyrics to ‘La donna è mobile’ and what do they mean?

29 February 2024, 17:45

After the premiere of Verdi’s Rigoletto, this jaunty tenor aria became popular among Venetian gondoliers.

‘La donna è mobile’ from Verdi’s much-loved opera Rigoletto is one of the most impressive showcase arias for tenor voice.

A gruesome tale of love and revenge, the opera and its catchiest aria both require a substantial suspension of disbelief, and a grasp of the history behind the phrase.

Here’s what it all means...

Read more: The 20 greatest opera arias of all time

What does ‘La donna è mobile’ mean?

Literally ‘Woman is fickle’ in English, the Italian ‘La donna è mobile’ is based on a phrase by a 16th-century French king.

After being betrayed by one of his many mistresses, Francis I supposedly engraved this on a windowpane: ‘Souvent femme varie, bien fol qui s’y fie’ (‘Women are fickle, whoever trusts them is a fool’). Victor Hugo borrowed the phrase in his play Le roi s’amuse, on which Rigoletto is based.

‘La donna è mobile’ is first heard at the beginning of the third act, by the Duke of Mantua, an unashamed Lothario who likes to chase beautiful women... and then ruin their reputation.

Among the many women he seduces is Rigoletto’s young and rather naive daughter, Gilda, who falls madly in love with him before he betrays her. Seeking to avenge his daughter’s honour, Rigoletto hires an assassin to kill the Duke and bring his body to him in a sack later that night.

But Gilda, who despite the betrayal cannot bear to see her lover killed, sacrifices herself in his place.

At this point in the opera, the Duke’s aria is reprised by Rigoletto who, singing the florid, catchy tune under his breath, is thrown into a state of torment, as opens the sack, sees his daughter’s body and realises he has been cruelly deceived.

Read more: The 20 greatest operas ever written

Rigoletto: Juan Diego Flórez sings 'La donna è mobile'

Why is the music so catchy?

Verdi wrote the aria in a major key and lively 3/8 time, marking it ‘Allegretto’.

Rapid and energetic, ‘La donna è mobile’ is a ‘bravura’ aria, with a bright A sharp at the end as the final showpiece moment.

The composer knew he had written an impossibly catchy tune. At the premiere of his opera in Venice, in 1851, tenor Raffaele Mirate’s performance was billed the highlight of the evening – and the next day, people were whistling the tune in the streets.

Football fans have used the melody, and during the 2020 lockdown, a video of Maurizio Marchini singing ‘La donna è mobile’ from his balcony in Florence, Italy went viral on social media. More than 150 years after its composition, the power of an irresistible Verdi aria lives on.

Italians play music from balconies to entertain each other during lockdown

What are the lyrics to ‘La donna è mobile’?

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 mensognero

La donna è mobile
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 core

Pur mai non sentesi
Felice appieno
Qui su quel seno
Non liba amore

La donna è mobile
Qual piuma al vento
Muta d’accento
E di pensier
E di pensier
E di pensier

What do the lyrics mean in English?

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.

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!

Woman is fickle.
Like a feather in the wind,
she changes her words,
and her thoughts!