Un percorso didattico sul “Rigoletto” di Verdi: «La donna è mobile» e la voce come fantasma

Abstract

This didactic unit, designed for first two years of secondary school, briefly contextualizes figure of Giuseppe Verdi within history of 19th-century Italian melodrama. It then moves on to illustrate dramaturgy of Rigoletto, which clearly reflects in social and aesthetic reality of its time, explaining why Verdi was so fond of this subject, and defended it strenuously - and in end successfully - from axe of censorship. The course focuses on listening didactics applied to «La donna e mobile», with aim of helping learners understand structure and meaning of libretto, music and its peculiar use in drama. «La donna e mobile», a tavern song and, at same time, song most deeply rooted in drama that has ever been conceived, is heard three times in course of opera, each time in a slightly different musical version, and always for dramatic purposes. The third occurrence ushers in one of most effective, and upsetting, catastrophes in tragic theater of all time: a catastrophe entirely rooted in sound and singing - that is, in sense of hearing which prevails over sense of sight. The lesson we learn from «La Donna e mobile» is that in opera it is musical text that has the last word rather than verbal and visual text.