Being Mozart

Mozart, the genius of composition, touches the heart forever. Here is the sublime trio, "Soave sia il vento" translated "May the Wind be Gentle" from his rather comical opera Cosi Fan Tutte typically translated "All Women are Alike." Go figure! Are we? Are men really from Mars and women from Venus? Don't we really want the same things? Perhaps it's a simple--or not so simple--matter of how we go about getting them. Are some caught in between? Where might this place be? Pluto? Oh, it's no longer a planet anymore, is it? Perhaps this is the feeling of many--the sense of being nowhere, of not being understood or not being emotionally wholly in one category of the other. But I digress.



In the trio the men are leaving the young women in a state of extreme distraught, wondering when or if they'll see their lovers again. Notice the underlining troubling "waves" of the orchestra over the calm plaintive wails of the singers, setting up the theme of the opera and a beautiful tension similar to real life—not that such tensions are always beautiful. Often times separation and gender differences are just painful. But do sometimes they hurt so good—just a little? The trio appears in Act I which sets the scene for a series of strange happenings, ensuring that things will never be the same for the young lovers ever again. Here is the translation: "May the wind be gentle, may the wave (s) be calm, and may every one of the elements warmly fulfill our (your) wishes." Enjoy!