La serva padrona (The Servant Mistress)

Intermezzo buffo by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710-1736)

Based on the libretto by Gennaro Antonio Federico, it was premiered at the San Bartolomeo Theatre in Naples on 28 August 1733, at the end of the period of mourning due to the violent seaquakes that hit Naples in the late 1732, during which the carnival celebrations of 1733 and the theatre season - which was particularly thriving in that period - were called off.

The opera was performed as an intermezzo to Pergolesi's serious opera Il prigionier superbo, but it far exceeded its popularity. These performances, in fact, owe their fortune to this famous composition which was performed during the intermissions: the short two-act buffa intermezzo - with its cheerful and breezy character and a certain degree of naughtiness, composed without sticking to the musical formalisms of the time - represents situations and characters that are at the same time caricatural and realistic, just like in the traditional commedia dell'arte.

From the mid-18th century La serva padrona came to be considered as the mother of all comic theatre.

Orchestra I Solisti di Napoli

Direttore maestro Susanna Pescetti

SOPRANO: ANGELA FIGO

BASSO: CARMINE DURANTE