La donna è mobile (Rigoletto)
Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901) · sheet music
- Time 3/4
- Levels 2
- Passages 1
Your turn · both hands
Preparing your passage…
Giuseppe Verdi, Italian romantic (1813–1901). The reading release has 1 passage from this piece at level 2; the reader above opens on the easiest, bars 1–4 for the right hand alone.
The hardest stretch is bars 1–4 at level 2.
Your practice path
Learn it the way teachers do: each hand on its own, then together, then the hard bars. Each step is a real graded passage of La donna è mobile (Rigoletto).
- Right hand alone · bars 1–4 level 2
How to play La donna è mobile (Rigoletto)
- Tempo:Play at a lively but relaxed Allegretto pace, with a clear lilt; if you push, the tune sounds hurried and loses its charm.
- Rhythm:Count the piece in a swinging triple pulse, with the first beat of each group a little stronger, and let the short notes in the tune skip lightly.
- Right hand:Keep your hand in one position as much as possible and read the tune by intervals, because the melody moves by small steps with a few jumps.
- Left hand:When the left hand plays, give a light, steady first beat and softer chords on the others, like a gentle dance accompaniment.
- Dynamics:Make the second verse slightly different from the first, with a touch more color or a lighter texture, to show the Duke's flirtatious character.
- Hands together:Practice the melody and bass separately, then put them together at a slow tempo, listening for the balance.
- Reading:Check the key signature before starting, and look ahead for any accidentals so they do not surprise you in the middle of a phrase.
- Practice:Loop each four-bar phrase until it is comfortable, then play the whole verse without stopping.
Common mistakes
- Rushing the short notes and turning the tune into a gallop. Fix: Practice the skipping rhythm at a slow tempo with a metronome and keep the pulse steady.
- Accenting every beat equally so the music loses its triple feel. Fix: Lean gently on beat one of each group and play the other two beats lighter.
- Letting the left-hand chords overpower the melody. Fix: Play the left hand quietly and listen to the right-hand tune on top.
Structure: strophic aria with ritornello
The aria is a strophic song: the same tune repeats for each verse, with an orchestral ritornello between verses. The tune ends on an unresolved note, the sixth degree of the scale, and only resolves to the home note at the very end, so the music keeps moving until the last statement.
- Intro · Orchestral introduction
- A short, bouncy opening that sets the dance rhythm. Count it carefully.
- A · Verse and refrain (B major)
- The famous tune, singable and rhythmic, with a skipping triple pulse. A good melody to read in one hand first.
- A' · Second verse
- The same tune again with new words. Use the repeat to practice phrasing and dynamics.
- Ritornello · Orchestral ritornello
- A short orchestral passage between and after the verses that carries the dance rhythm.
About La donna è mobile (Rigoletto)
La donna è mobile, which means Woman is fickle, is the Duke of Mantua's song at the beginning of Act 3 of Verdi's opera Rigoletto. The opera premiered on 11 March 1851 at La Fenice in Venice, with a libretto by Francesco Maria Piave based on Victor Hugo's play Le roi s'amuse. The Duke sings it from inside the house of the assassin Sparafucile, where he is flirting with Maddalena while Rigoletto and Gilda listen outside.
Verdi gave the tenor Raffaele Mirate the music only shortly before the premiere and made him promise not to sing or whistle it outside rehearsals. The audience heard it for the first time on opening night, and the next day people were already singing it in the streets.
The aria is strophic, with an orchestral ritornello between the verses, and each statement of the tune stops on an unresolved note until the final repetition finally settles on the home note. Its simple, bouncy melody made it a barrel-organ favorite, a staple of television advertising, and a football chant.
- The opera's original title was La maledizione, meaning The Curse.
- Verdi completed the Rigoletto score on 5 February 1851, about a month before the premiere.
- The words draw on a phrase that Francis I of France is said to have scratched on a window pane, which Victor Hugo used in Le roi s'amuse.
- In 2020, a video of Maurizio Marchini singing the aria from his Florence balcony during the COVID-19 lockdown went viral.
Why the first passage is level 2
That passage is level 2 rather than 1 because notes come faster than one per beat, it leaps a major third, it is in 3/4, not 4/4, it moves in eighth notes.
This is a simplified piano arrangement in triple meter, and the lowest level starts with just the right hand. The original aria is in a different key and meter, so the notation here will not match a vocal score.
Questions about La donna è mobile (Rigoletto)
- How hard is La donna è mobile (Rigoletto) to play?
- Its passages grade from level 2 on Real Sight Reader's ten-level reading scale, which keeps all of it within beginner reading. The hardest stretch is bars 1–4 at level 2.
- Is there an easy part of La donna è mobile (Rigoletto) for beginners?
- Yes. Start with bars 1–4 for the right hand alone, the level-2 passage in the reader at the top of this page; it is level 2 because notes come faster than one per beat and it leaps a major third.
- What key and time signature is La donna è mobile (Rigoletto) in?
- The engraving on this page is in 3/4 time.
- Who composed La donna è mobile (Rigoletto)?
- Giuseppe Verdi, Italian romantic (1813–1901). La donna è mobile, which means Woman is fickle, is the Duke of Mantua's song at the beginning of Act 3 of Verdi's opera Rigoletto.
- Can I practice La donna è mobile (Rigoletto) online for free?
- Yes. The reader on this page plays any of the one graded passage from La donna è mobile (Rigoletto) in your browser, with an on-screen keyboard or a MIDI keyboard, and marks every note as you play. No signup.
- What does La donna è mobile mean?
- It is Italian for Woman is fickle. It is the Duke of Mantua's song about the changeable nature of women, from Verdi's opera Rigoletto.
- Why did Verdi keep La donna è mobile secret?
- According to the accounts of the premiere, he gave the tune to the tenor only shortly before opening night and made him promise not to sing or whistle it outside rehearsals. The audience first heard it that night, and people were singing it in the streets the next day.
- What opera is La donna è mobile from?
- It is from Verdi's Rigoletto, which premiered in Venice on 11 March 1851. The aria comes in Act 3.
Every passage, easiest first
The reading release grades one passage of this piece. Open any of them in the reader:
- Level 2
- bars 1–4 right hand
More pieces to sight-read
Score: public-domain engraving from the corpus (pdmx), graded by the piano-reading-v2-20261023-identity-audit reading release.