Voi Che Sapete

The opening scenes in this film are so poignant. It just occurred to me that some viewers might not realize the significance of the little tune Gaby and her father play on the piano, which comes back now and then when she is fighting old memories.

Besides the obvious -- they are losing the joy of being together, simple pleasures like playing the piano, secular music and culture -- there is another layer.

The melody is from Mozart's Marriage of Figaro, and is sung by the character Cherubino, who has an angelic name, but is fighting the not-so-angelic urges of adolescence.

Cherubino is a "trouser role" -- a male character traditionally played by a woman. So these lyrics, that are both lustful and sweetly innocent (with sweet, innocent music to match), are always sung by a woman:

You who know what love is,
Women, see whether it's in my heart.
What I am experiencing I will tell you,
It is new to me and I do not understand it.

I have a feeling full of desire,
That now, is both pleasure and suffering.
At first frost, then I feel the soul burning,
And in a moment I'm freezing again.

I seek a blessing outside myself,
I do not know how to hold it, I do not know what it is.
I sigh and moan without meaning to,
Throb and tremble without knowing,
I find no peace both night or day,
But even still, I like to languish.

It starts at about :46 in this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7y3_SZqNi4

So the melody itself evokes, for me, her father's sadness that the hopes he may have had for Gaby at her adolescence are now gone -- she will not experience romance, marriage, and having children.