La donna è mobile

Raffaele Mirate's performance of the bravura aria at the opera's 1851 premiere was hailed as the highlight of the evening.

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 (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 lyrics are based on a phrase by King Francis I of France, Souvent femme varie, bien fol qui s'y fie.

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

La donna è mobile Qual piuma al vento, muta d'accento e di pensiero.

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'!

Poetic adaptation Plume in the summerwind Waywardly playing Ne'er one way swaying Each whim obeying;

[7] When all of Italy was under lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a video of opera singer Maurizio Marchini performing "La donna è mobile" and other arias and songs from his balcony in Florence went viral.