La serva padrona
Music by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi · libretto by Gennaro Antonio Federico · premiered 1733 · at Comédie-Italienne
La serva padrona (The Maid Turned Mistress) is a 1733 intermezzo by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710–1736) to a libretto by Gennaro Federico, after the play by Jacopo Angello Nelli. It is some 40 minutes long, in two parts without overture, and was written as light-hearted staged entertainment between the acts of Pergolesi's serious opera Il prigionier superbo. More specifically each of the two parts, set in the same dressing room, played during an intermission of the three-act opera to amuse people who remained in their seats.
Federico's libretto was also set by Giovanni Paisiello, in 1781.
Text from the Wikipedia article "La serva padrona", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
About the Composer
Giovanni Battista Draghi (Italian: [dʒoˈvanni batˈtista ˈdraːɡi]; 4 January 1710 – 16 or 17 March 1736), usually referred to as Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (Italian: [perɡoˈleːzi, -eːsi]), was an Italian Baroque composer, violinist, and organist, leading exponent of the Baroque; he is considered one of the greatest Italian musicians of the first half of the 18th century and one of the most important representatives of the Neapolitan school. Despite his short life and few years of activity (he died of tuberculosis at the age of 26), he managed to create works of high artistic value and historical importance, such as La serva padrona (The Maid Turned Mistress), which played an important role…
Text from the Wikipedia article "Giovanni Battista Pergolesi", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Other Operas by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi
- La Salustia (1732)
- Il prigionier superbo (1733)
- Adriano in Siria (1734)
- Livietta e Tracollo (1734)
- Il Flaminio (1735)
- L'Olimpiade (1735)