The cavatina

Cavatina

Cavatina is a musical term, originally a short song of simple character, without a second strain or any repetition of the air...

 Se vuol ballare is the title of an aria

Aria

An aria in music was originally any expressive melody, usually, but not always, performed by a singer. The term is now used almost exclusively to describe a self-contained piece for one voice usually with orchestral accompaniment...

 from the opera The Marriage of Figaro

The Marriage of Figaro

Le nozze di Figaro, ossia la folle giornata , K. 492, is an opera buffa composed in 1786 in four acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte, based on a stage comedy by Pierre Beaumarchais, La folle journée, ou le Mariage de Figaro .Although the play by...

by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...

. It means If you want to dance in Italian. Written a mere three years before the French Revolution

French Revolution

The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...

, it portrays Figaro's intent to foil Count Almaviva's womanizing, but can also be read as a political attack on the power-wielding nobility of the time.

The song is sung by Figaro upon discovering the Count's ploys to exercise his newly reasserted feudal

Feudalism

Feudalism was a set of legal and military customs in medieval Europe that flourished between the 9th and 15th centuries, which, broadly defined, was a system for ordering society around relationships derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labour.Although derived from the...

 right of ius primae noctis

Droit de seigneur

Droit du seigneur is an alleged legal right allowing the lord of a medieval estate to take the virginity of his serfs' maiden daughters. There is no historical evidence that such a right ever existed.-Terminology:...

 to sleep with Figaro's wife Susanna before the consummation of their marriage. Figaro sings of how he will unravel the Count's schemes and thwart him.

Libretto

Se vuol ballare, signor contino, il chitarrino le suonerò, sì, se vuol venire nella mia scuola, la capriola le insegnerò, sì. Saprò, saprò, ma piano, meglio ogni arcano, dissimulando scoprir potrò. L'arte schermendo, l'arte adoprando, di qua pungendo, di là scherzando, tutte le macchine rovescierò. Se vuol ballare, signor contino, il chitarrino le suonerò.

If you would dance, my pretty Count, I'll play the little guitar for you, yes. If you will come to my dancing school I'll teach you the capriole, yes. I will, I will learn, slowly; Sooner every dark secret by dissembling I shall uncover. Artfully fencing, artfully working, stinging here, joking there, all of your schemes I'll turn inside out. If you would dance, my pretty Count, I'll play the little guitar for you.

Variations

Beethoven wrote a series of 12 variations

Variation (music)

In music, variation is a formal technique where material is repeated in an altered form. The changes may involve harmony, melody, counterpoint, rhythm, timbre, orchestration or any combination of these.-Variation form:...

 on the theme

Theme (music)

In music, a theme is the material, usually a recognizable melody, upon which part or all of a composition is based.-Characteristics:A theme may be perceivable as a complete musical expression in itself, separate from the work in which it is found . In contrast to an idea or motif, a theme is...

of Se vuol ballare. It is not catalogued and therefore bears the Number WoO 40 (=Werk ohne Opuszahl, work without opus number)