Se vuol ballare

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The cavatina "Se Vuol Ballare" is the title of an aria from the opera The Marriage of Figaro by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It means If you want to dance in Italian. Written a mere three years before the French Revolution, it portrays Figaro's intent to foil Count Almaviva's womanizing, but can also be read as a a political attack on the power-wielding nobility of the time.

The song is sung by Figaro upon discovering the Count's ploys to exercise his newly reasserted feudal right of ius primae noctis to sleep with Figaro's wife Suzanne before the consummation of their marriage. Figaro sings of how he will unravel the Count's schemes and thwart him.

Lyrics

Italian

Se vuol ballare, signor contino,
il chitarrino le suonerò, sì,
se vuol venire nella mia scuola,
la capriola le insegnerò, sì.

Saprò, saprò, ma piano,
meglio ogni arcano.
dissimulando scoprir porto.

L'arte schermendo, l'arte adoprando,
di qua pungendo, di la scherzando,
tutte le macchine rovescierò.

Se vuol ballare, signor contino,
il chitarrino le suonerò.

English

If you would dance, my pretty Count,
I'll play the tune on my little guitar.
If you will come to my dancing school
I'll gladly teach you the capriole.

You will learn quickly
every dark secret,
you will find out how to dissemble.

The art of stinging, the art of conniving,
fighting with this one, playing with that one,
all of your schemes I'll turn inside out.

If you would dance, my pretty Count,
I'll play the tune on my little guitar.

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