La serva padrona

• Uberto, an old bachelor ( bass)
• Serpina, his maid (soprano )
• Vespone, servant ( silent role )

La serva padrona (Eng. The maid as Mistress ) is a comic opera in two acts by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi. The libretto Gennaro Antonio Federico. The work was premiered on August 28, 1733 at the Teatro San Bartolomeo in Naples. It was originally prigioner inserted superbo the same composer as a comic interlude between the acts of opera seria Il.

Importance

Because of their action ( the servant becomes the wife of her authoritarian nobleman ), the opera became a symbol of bourgeois - emancipatory aspirations ahead of the French Revolution. Especially the exclamation " Zit " bossed around by Serpina her henpecked husband Uberto, was proverbial. Political importance was the opera by her frequent performances in occupied by the Habsburg dynasty Northern Italy since 1738.

Performances by Italian opera troupes in Paris around 1746 and in 1752 triggered the Buffonistenstreit in which the Italian opera buffa was made to the model La serva padrona, was pitted against the outdated standards of French opera. Musically, the opera was considered as a model of a detachment from the Baroque style (see baroque music ), which lasted longer, especially in France than in Italy. The piece had a significant influence on the development of the opéra comique.

Action

Place and time

The opera takes place in a posh house in an Italian city at the time of the premiere, so in the 1730s.

Act I

Impatiently waiting for the old bachelor Uberto that it Serpina, his maid, finally serve the breakfast. But this know how much their employer is dependent on her, and lets him whatsoever feel again. Finally, Uberto is furious. He tells his staff that he would marry in the near future. Serpina who thinks of himself as the only correct elect has no objection to what Uberto put in great astonishment.

Second Act

Serpina devises a cunning plan. She pretends to want to marry themselves and presented their Lord also equal to the groom. However, this is no other than the servant Vespone. Only he is so well disguised as a soldier, that he is not recognized by Uberto as his Domestike. Now explains Serpina the old bachelor, her lover demanded that he, Uberto, let him give her a dowry of 4,000 scudi, otherwise it will not with the marriage. Then she had to marry their Lord. The old Uberto is far too stingy to act of removing the demanded sum. Finally, he is driven by his servant as long cornered until he promises to lead them to the altar itself. In order Serpina has achieved its goal: it is the new mistress.