Quando me'n vo'

Libretto#

Quando me’n vo’ Quando me’n vo’ soletta per la via, la gente sosta e mira e la bellezza mia tutta ricerca in me da capo a piè … Ed assaporo allor la bramosia sottil, che da gli occhi traspira e dai palesi vezzi intender sa alle occulte beltà. Così l’effluvio del desìo tutta m’aggira, felice mi fa! E tu che sai, che memori e ti struggi da me tanto rifuggi? So ben: Le angoscie tue non le vuoi dir, ma ti senti morir! When I walk When I walk all alone in the street, people stop and stare at me and look for my whole beauty from head to feet … And then I taste the slight yearning which transpires from their eyes and which is able to perceive from manifest charms to most hidden beauties. So the scent of desire is all around me, it makes me happy! And you, while knowing, reminding and longing, you shrink from me? I know it very well: you don’t want to express your anguish, but you feel as if you’re dying!

Later uses#

Popular renditions of the melody were produced during the 1950s, including an American Top 40 hit by Sammy Kaye (“You”) and a version by Della Reese (“Don’t You Know?”), which reached number two on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. In addition, an arrangement of the song by pianist Dick Hyman and saxophonist Moe Koffman was used in the soundtrack to the film Moonstruck. In the Broadway musical Rent, which is inspired by La Bohème, the first verse of the song “Take Me or Leave Me” has lyrics based on those of “Quando me’n vo’”. Also, the character Roger plays the melody of “Quando me’n vo” on his guitar several times, prompting his friend Mark to sarcastically say, “That doesn’t remind us of Musetta’s Waltz.”

External links#

• Piano vocal score with Italian and English text, William and Gayle Cook Music Library, Jacobs School of Music
• , performed by Renata Tebaldi
• , Anna Netrebko