Mozart Rocks!

With my voice teacher I'm working on, a pants piece from the opera by Mozart, Le Nozze di Figaro. Pants roles are male characters who are played by women because they are emasculate in some way. The character who sings it is Cherubino, a very hormonal teenage boy.

The italian text is about being all over the place emotionally. One minute he's fine, the next he's in torment. He's hot, then he's old, and it's all against his own volition.

Mozart is brilliant because they music encompasses the emotions of the character so well. The music makes lots of harmonic leaps and there are off-balance rhythms all over the place. There is a particular motif that throughout the piece, typically closes with an off-balance rhythm and middle pitches for the mezzo-soprano singer. But when that motif is repeated at the end of the song it has a very steady, on the beat sort of rhythm and pitches that are quite low in the singer's range.
I think Mozart does this do musically embody the character's resolve to conquer his emotions. In stead of off-balance and all over the place, he is resolutely on the beat and low in pitch in an effort to be manly. But the low-pitch, sounding somewhat unnatural for the high-voiced singer, indicates that the character is still just a boy.

-Beatrice Murray