La serva padrona

La serva padrona (The Servant Turned Mistress) is an opera buffa by

La serva padrona
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710 – 1736) to a libretto by Gennaro Antonio
Federico, after the play by Jacopo Angello Nelli. The opera is only 45 minutes Opera buffa by G. B. Pergolesi
long and was originally performed as an intermezzo between the acts of a
larger serious opera. (The same libretto was set by Giovanni Paisiello in
1781.)

Contents
Performance history
Roles
Synopsis
Recordings Title page of a vintage opera program
Scores Description Intermezzo
Film versions Translation The Servant Turned
References Mistress
External links
Librettist Gennaro Antonio Federico
Librettos
Scores Language Italian
Based on La serva padrona
by Jacopo Angello Nelli
Performance history Premiere 5 September 1733
Teatro San Bartolomeo,
La serva padrona was originally an intermezzo to Pergolesi's opera seria, Il
Naples
prigionier superbo (The Proud Prisoner). The two were premiered at the
Teatro San Bartolomeo on 5 September 1733, the first performance after an
earthquake in Naples had caused all theatres to be closed, and celebrated the birthday of the Empress of Habsbur
g.

Il prigioniero superbo was unsuccessful in its day[1] and is not a recognized title in today’s operatic repertoire. Eventually the two
pieces were separated, and La serva padrona went on to enjoy fame throughout Europe for years after its premiere. The importance
of this intermezzo can hardly be overlooked in the history of opera. With a new finale, the French version played a large part in the
Querelle des Bouffons. It was appealing because of its presentation of characters that were relatable to any audience, namely the
cunning maid and her aging master. La serva padrona is often seen as the quintessential piece that bridges the gap from the Baroque
to the Classical period. Owing to its importance, over time it came to be known as more than just an intermezzo and was performed
as a stand-alone work.

Roles
 Role Voice type Premiere cast[2]
5 September 1733
Uberto, an old man buffo bass Gioacchino Corrado
Serpina, his maid soprano Laura Monti
Vespone, his servant silent actor

Synopsis
Intermezzo 1

Dressing room

Uberto, an elderly bachelor, is angry and impatient with his maidservant, Serpina,
because she has not brought him his chocolate today. Serpina has become so
arrogant that she thinks she is the mistress of the household. Indeed, when Uberto
calls for his hat, wig and coat, Serpina forbids him from leaving the house, adding
that from then on he will have to obey her orders. Uberto thereupon orders Vespone
to find him a woman to marry so that he can rid himself of Serpina.

Intermezzo 2

Same dressing room

Serpina convinces Vespone to trick Uberto into marrying her. She informs Uberto
that she is to marry a military man named Tempesta. She will be leaving his home
and apologizes for her behavior. Vespone, disguised as Tempesta, arrives and,
without saying a word, demands 4,000 crowns for a dowry. Uberto refuses to pay
such a sum. Tempesta threatens him to either pay the dowry or marry the girl
Catherine Nelidova as Serpina (by
himself. Uberto agrees to marry Serpina. Serpina and Vespone reveal their trick; but
Dmitry Levitzky, 1773)
Uberto realizes that he has loved the girl all along. They will marry after all; and
Serpina will now be the true mistress of the household.

Recordings
Virginia Zeani opposite her husbandNicola Rossi-Lemeni (1959)
Renata Scotto and Sesto Bruscantini (c1960)
Anna Moffo and Paolo Montarsolo (1962)
Maddalena Bonifacio and Siegmund Nimsgern (with Collegium Aureum in Deutsche Harmonia Mundi) (1969)
Carmen Bustamante and Renato Capecchi (1973)
Julianne Baird and John Ostendorf (1989)
Mariella Adani and Leonardi Monreale, Pomeriggi Musicali del e Tatro Nuovo di Milano,Ettore Gracis cond.;
Nonesuch H-71043 (c1960s)
Patricia Biccire and Donato Di Stefano, La Petite Bande cond. Sigiswald Kuijken Accent ACC 96123 D (1996)
Gordana Minov-Jevtovićand Nikola Mitić, PGP RTB (1976)
Katalin Farkas and József Gregor, Pál Németh (cond.), Capella Savaria; Hungaroton (1986)

Scores
The scores of the opera vary wildly. Edwin F. Kalmus has a score with massive omissions, wrong notes, and much spoken dialogue.
Boosey & Hawkes has the score in an operetta adaptation by Seymour Barab, with highly simplified accompaniment and much
spoken dialogue. Casa Ricordi presents the opera as sung-through and is the version most used in performance today. W.W. Norton &
Company includes excerpts of the full score (for strings and continuo) that has numerous melodic differences from the Ricordi
edition, but that correlate with the accompanying recording bySiegmund Nimsgern.[3]

Film versions
Italian director Mario Lanfranchi made an opera-film version in 1958 withAnna Moffo, Paolo Montarsolo, and
Giancarlo Cobelli.[4]
Brazilian director Carla Camurati made a feature film version in 1999 with Sylvia Klein (Serpina), José Carlos Leal
(Uberto) and Thales Pan Chacon (Vespone).[5]
An Australian TV version aired in 1962.[6]

References
Notes

1. Grout and Williams (2003), p. 232

2. "Almanacco 5 September 1746"(http://amadeusonline.eu/almanacco.php?Start=0&Giorno=5&Mese=09&Anno=173
3&Giornata=&Testo=&Parola=Stringa)(in Italian). AmadeusOnline. Retrieved 27 August 2010.
3. Palisca, pp. 1–15
4. La serva padrona (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0496163/)on IMDB
5. International Festival of Audiovisual Programs (FIP
A). La serva padrona (http://www.fipa.tm.fr/en/programs/2000/la-s
erva-padrona-908.htm)
6. ABV Channel 2, listed at 8:30, in the 1 November 1962 edition of The Age, a Melbourne Australia newspaper
(http
s://news.google.com/newspapers?id=-ZBV AAAAIBAJ&sjid=w5YDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6939%2C200232)at Google
News Archive

Sources

Grout, Donald Jay and Hermine Weigel Williams (2003), A Short History of Opera, Columbia University Press,
pp. 229–232. ISBN 0-231-11958-5
Palisca, Claude V. Norton Anthology of Western Music: Volume 2: Classic to Modern. New York: W.W. Norton, 2001
ISBN 0-393-97691-2
Warrack, John and Ewan West (1992) The Oxford Dictionary of Opera. ISBN 0-19-869164-5

External links

Librettos
Federico, Gennaro Antonio (1739).La serva padrona. Intermezzo per musica da rappresentarsi nel teatro formagliari
il Novembre 1739. Bologna: Bayerische StaatsBibliothek digital. Retrieved 13 January 2013.
Federico, Gennarantonio."La Serva Padrona. Intermezzo in due parti". www.librettidopera.it. Retrieved 13 January
2013.

Scores
Pergolesi, Giovanni Battista(1757). La serva padrona. Intermezzo del Signore Giovanni Battista Pergolese
rapresentato in Pariggi nell' Autunno 1757(1805 by Auguste Le Duc, reprint ed.). Paris: Radicciotti-Cherbuliez
.
Retrieved 13 January 2013. at UNT
Various editions at IMSLP

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