Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (January 4, 1710 – March 16, 1736) composed La Serva Padrona (The Maid as Mistress), a one-act Italian opera buffa. Libretto was written by Gennarantonio Federico, based on the play by Jacopo Angello Nelli. It was premiered in Naples, Teatro San Bartolomeo, August 28, 1733. The setting is in Italy, 18th century.
Notable arias: "Sempre in contrasti (Uberto), "Stizzoso, mio stizzoso" (Serpina)
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi wrote masterful sacred music including oratorios from his teens. He was only 22 when he premiered his first opera seria. All his operas were premiered in Naples apart from L'Olimpiade which was first given in Rome.
La serva padrona (The Maid Turned Mistress) is actually a comic intermezzo (an act that provides diversions in between main attractions) added by Pergolesi to his first opera, Il prigonier superbo, an opera seria. La serva padrona was so successful that it gained Pergolesi huge popularity. Since then, it has been considered the archetypal opera buffa. Later on, La serva padrona was performed independently. Pergolesi was not the first to utilize a plot in an intermezzo in order to draw on a comic act. Baroque composer George Telemann used the same plot earlier.
Since then, for two decades, the revolutionary portrayal of a man in love with his servant was something that enthralled European audiences. In later years, it opened up to some changes that led to the operas of Christoph W. Gluck and then Wolfgang A. Mozart.
Character Roles of La Serva Padrona
- Uberto, an elderly bachelor (bass)
- Serpina, tyrannical maid to Uberto (soprano)
- Vespone, a mute servant to Uberto
Plot Summary / Synopses of La Serva Padrona (The Maid as Mistress)
Act 1. Morning, in the Dressing Room of Uberto
Uberto complains to his mute servant Vespone that the kind of caring he has shown to Serpina, his serving maid, has spoiled her. When he asks for something, she now often takes him for granted by taking long to do her errands. She even demands too much attention. To free himself from Serpina's tyranny, Uberto decides to marry and asks Vespone to find him a wife. Naturally, Serpina insists he should marry her only.
Serpina devices a plan to persuade Uberto to marry her. Asking Vespone's help, she dresses him up as a soldier, and presents him to Uberto as someone who wants to marry her in order to make him jealous. She says Vespone demands a dowry from Uberto. Without the dowry he will not marry Serpina – but she suggests that another option is for Uberto to marry her. Uberto accepts the second option - that of marrying her. Just then, Vespone's false moustache is displaced and his true identity is revealed. Serpina owns up to the hoax. Uberto realizes he does love Serpina. She notes she is a maid-turned-mistress. They marry and declare their love.
Other operas by Pergolesi:
- Il prigonier superbo
- La conversione e morte di San Guglielmo
- Lo Frate 'nnamorato
- L'Olimpiade
- Il Flaminio
Sources:
Opera by Alan Riding and L.D. Downer, DK, 2006
The Da Capo Opera Manual by Nicholas Ivor Martin, 1997
 |
