Max Derrickson

Aria: “Dove sono” from Le nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
(Born in Salzburg in 1756; died in Vienna in 1791)

Nearing the peak of his career, Le nozze di Figaro is naturally one of Mozart’s finest scores – many consider it to be the finest Opera buffa ever written.  And his ability to make music mirror the psychological essence of the scene, [. . .]  One of the opera’s most beautiful and thoughtful moments occurs in Act III with the Countess’s aria “Dove sono” (“Where are they?).  Here the Countess is planning to catch her husband, the Count, red-handed in faithlessness with Susanna, and she’s employed Susanna to help trap him.

But in a moment of quiet reflection, she wonders where the sweetness of their love has gone, [. . .]  The psychological effect is disarming – even as the pathos of the Countess’s pain deepen, her hopes for reconciliation are still distantly glimmering.

Italian text
Dove sono i bei momenti
Di dolcezza e di piacer?
Dove andaro i giuramenti
Di quel labbro menzogner?
Perchè mai, se in pianti e in pene
Per me tutto si cangiò,
La memoria di quel bene
Dal mio sen non trapassò?
Ah! se almen la mia costanza,
Nel languire amando ognor,
Mi portasse una speranza
Di cangiar l’ingrato cor!