Both pleasure and suffering

Congressional Republican whack jobs took time out this week from censuring Democrat Adam Schiff for doing his damn job more than three years ago (by leading the first impeachment of BoneSpurs45) to pass legislation removing drag shows from US military bases. Because it’s not about “protecting the children”; it’s about delineating more groups as “other”, with a direct path to extirpation.

So our earworm for today’s—in Pride Month—is “Voi che sapete”, also known as “Cherubino’s Aria”, from Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro. Figaro is a comic opera, based on a play by Pierre Beaumarchais; there are a lot of machinations around the upcoming marriage between Figaro, valet to Count Almaviva, and Susanna, maid to the count’s wife, Countess Rosina. There’s a whole palaver about the count wanting to invoke le droit du seigneur, but Susanna and Rosina outwit him and save the day, if you’re interested.

Cherubino is the count’s adolescent page, in what’s known as a “breeches role”: the part calls for a high voice and is thus played by a female singer dressed in male clothes. In this case, it’s a woman playing a teenaged boy in the throes of puppy love for the countess. Everyone involved—including the audiences—accepts this without so much as a wink, wink, nudge, nudge and a good time is had by all.

Well, there might have been a bit of a flurry over a woman’s legs being exposed on stage, but it doesn’t seem to have made it to any legislative bodies for outlawing.

Fun fact: breeches roles in operas were originally filled by castrati—young male singers castrated before their high voices changed. That practice went out of style somewhere in the 16^th Century. There's a greater than zero chance that, in their rush to turn the clock back, Republicans might want to go all they way to castrati to "save the children". I mean—probably unlikely, but I wouldn't put it past them.

“Voi che sapete” is all about Cherubino’s crush on Rosina. He describes his feelings and asks if this is, in fact, love.

Here’s Israeli mezzo Rinat Shaham singing it at the Royal Opera House. Listen if you dare.