OPERA CHOICE
Charmingly jolly japes in the company of Pergolesi
Michael Church enjoys a double bill that showcases the Italian composer’s comic flair at its very finest
Pergolesi
La Serva Padrona; Livietta e Tracollo
Boston Early Music Festival Chamber Ensemble/Paul O’Dette, Stephen Stubbs
CPO 555 6222 116:00 mins (2 discs)
Pergolesi’s comic musical playlet La Serva Padrona reflects an interesting moment in music history. Like Livietta e Tracollo, it was designed as an intermezzo: a cheap and cheerful music drama, to be inserted between heavyweight pieces of opera seria. It was also the work which sparked the ‘Querelle des bouffons’, the pitched battle in 18th-century Paris between the champions of French and Italian opera, which Italy won on points.
It is in effect a teasingly long-drawn-out mating dance between Uberto, a crotchety bachelor, and his cheekily ungovernable servant Serpina. She makes clear in copious asides that her intention is to trick him into marrying
