If, as the saying goes, men are beasts, what are we to say of adolescent boys? Usually a “love” song is sung to one specific person. Cherubino, however, sings his song “Voi che sapete” to two women at once, the Countess and Susanna granted, at Susanna’s urging. (We know that he is amorously inclined toward his cousin Barbarina as well.) When Cherubino’s words refer to “love,” therefore, it seems certain that he is speaking of erotic desire itself, not love for an individual. It is further worth noting that in this piece, Cherubino describes “love” almost exclusively in terms of physical “symptoms.”
While it may be convenient to refer to the piece by the first three words, “Voi che sapete” (You who know), they do not constitute a complete grammatical unit. The clause continues “…che cosa e amor” (…what love is). While it probably will be necessary to breathe after “sapete,” we can still help mold these four bars into one syntactical unit by avoiding a tapering of the voice at the end of “sapete.” Likewise for the two four-bar phrases that follow. (The rest that Mozart has dictated after “vedete” does not contradict this idea. A rest indicates a cessation of sound, not necessarily the end of a thought.) Throughout the aria, there is an expressive interplay between four-bar and two-bar phrases (for instance, the four-bar phrase: “Sento un affetto pien di desir” is followed by a pair of two-bar phrases “ch’ora e diletto, ch’ora e martir.”) Only if the longer phrases are projected as such will this interplay have its effect.
In the first section a rounded, symmetrical tune reprised at the end Cherubino is asking the women to tell him if he is experiencing love. In the next section, he is describing personal experiences that he suspects might be love. “Quello ch’io provo…” is thus more confiding and informal than the first section. Mozart helps make the distinction by introducing the brighter key of F. In the phrase “torno a gelar,” the sixteenth-note appoggiatura and the single sixteenth note imitate a shiver, a shiver from the sensation of freezing immediately after the soul has been inflamed. (There is no similar rhythm elsewhere in this song.) At “Ricerco un bene fuori di me,” the music’s movement toward the minor parallels the change of the text toward the reflective: instead of describing the sensations of desire, Cherubino momentarily questions their meaning. At “sospiro e gemo,” both the rising bass line and the accents in the line played by flute and oboe cause an increase in tension.
Cherubino presents two further “symptoms,” each followed by a little disclaimer of responsibility. (In these disclaimers, to preserve the accent of the word “senza,” the first syllable must be stressed, to counteract its rhythmically weak position.) “Non trovo pace notte, ne di,” a longer and more passionate phrase, follows. This is offered as an unequivocal complaint (“I don’t find peace night or day!”). Therefore, it is all the more telling that it should be followed by the confession, “ma pur mi piace languir cosi.” Finally, he explicitly acknowledges that the physical symptoms of desire, which he has claimed are unsought and unwanted, are, in fact, a source of pleasure to him: “But yet I like to languish like this.” This short phrase is, it seems to me, the crux of the piece, and should be distinguished by a new tone of voice: this is essential information that he has been withholding. (His other aria “Non so piu,” likewise withholds a secret until its conclusion that he “talks of love” to himself.) Revealing this, would he be embarrassed? Confiding? Sly? I wouldn’t presume to dictate; anyone who sings the piece must experience the moment her own way.
