La donna e mobile

Victor 87017 Recorded 3/16/1908 (Camden, New Jersey) Chart Debut 07-25-1908 - This Song Peaked On US Music Charts At #5 For Enrico Caruso In 1908. Written by Giuseppe Verdi & Francesco Maria Piave
Enrico Caruso (February 25, 1873 -- August 2, 1921) was an Italian tenor. He sang to great acclaim at the major opera houses of Europe and North and South America, appearing in a wide variety of roles from the Italian and French repertoires that ranged from the lyric to the dramatic. Caruso also made approximately 290 commercially released recordings from 1902 to 1920.
Caruso's 25-year career, stretching from 1895 to 1920, included 863 appearances at the New York Metropolitan Opera before he died from an infection at the age of 48. His fame has lasted to the present day despite the limited marketing and promotional vehicles available during Caruso's era.
Enrico Caruso came from a poor but not destitute background. Born in Naples in the Via San Giovannello agli Ottocalli 7 on February 25, 1873, he was baptised the next day in the adjacent Roman Catholic Church of San Giovanni e Paolo. Called Errico in accordance with the Neapolitan dialect, Caruso was nicknamed "Erri" by his family and friends; but he would later adopt the formal Italian version of his given name, Enrico (the equivalent of "Henry" in English). This change came at the suggestion of a singing teacher, Guglielmo Vergine, with whom he began lessons at the age of 16.
On September 16, 1920, Caruso attended Victor's prime recording venue, Trinity Church, at Camden, New Jersey, for the final time. He recorded several discs over three days, including the "Domine Deus" and "Crucifixus" from the Petite Messe Solennelle by Rossini. These discs were to be his last.
During a performance of L'elisir d'amore by Donizetti at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on December 11, 1920, he suffered a throat haemorrhage and the performance was canceled at the end of Act 1. Following this incident, a clearly unwell Caruso gave only three more performances at the Met, the final one being as Eléazar in Halévy's La Juive, on December 24, 1920. (Also appearing that night was the Australian coloratura soprano, Evelyn Scotney, who had sung with Caruso a number of times.By Christmas day, the pain in his side was so excruciating that he was screaming. Dorothy summoned the hotel physician, who gave Caruso some morphine and codeine and called in another doctor, Evan M. Evans. Evans brought in three other doctors and Caruso was finally correctly diagnosed with purulent pleurisy and empyema.
Caruso died on August 2, 1921. He was 48.
"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.
English translation:
This woman is flighty
Like a feather in the wind,
She changes in voice — and in thought.
Always sweet,
Pretty face,
In tears or in laughter, — she is a liar.
Refrain
The 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 on that bosom — does not drink love!
Refrain
Woman is flighty
Like a feather in the wind,
She changed her words,
And her thoughts!
And her thoughts!