Giovanni Pergolesi (1710–1736) Though only a moderately successful composer during his extremely short life, Pergolesi managed to write two works that not only brought him posthumous fame but significantly influenced the direction of vocal music in the eighteenth century. The first, La serva padrona (The Maidservant as Mistress), was an early example of comic opera, or opera buffa, in which the characters were drawn from every day life. Pergolesi worked mainly in Naples, a major operatic centre, where a style had developed which emphasized the beauty and virtuosity of the solo voice, often at the expense of dramatic unity. La serva padrona, a short intermezzo performed between the acts of Pergolesi’s opera seria Le prigionier superbo, introduced a more naturalistic tone, but its notoriety came about after the composer’s death, when a performance in Paris in 1752 instigated a furious theoretical debate about the respective merits of Pergolesi’s opera buffa as opposed to the more formal and serious French opera. The second, a setting of the Stabat Mater for two solo voices and strings, pioneered a style of church music which combined emotional directness with an elegant and graceful expressiveness. Here, as in his operatic work, Pergolesi epitomized a progressive tendency which was championed by the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who described the opening of the Stabat Mater as “the most perfect and most touching to have come from the pen of any musician”. La serva padrona La serva padrona should be approached with a little bit of caution. Several of the arias are charming and inventive (and sound surprisingly Mozartian) but over a third of the opera takes the form of long recitatives which, though tolerable with accompanying stage business, can be wearisome on record. The plot tells of how a tyrannical maid-servant (Serpina) tricks her elderly master (Umberto) into marrying her by disguising a fellow servant (Vespone) as a prospective suitor Much of the comedy derives from the fact that the role of Vespone is mute, thus providing scope for several comic misunderstandings. The characterization is simple but vivid and the players’ primary emotions are neatly established through direct and tuneful writing. Serpina’s “Stizzoso, mio Stizzoso” establishes her as a demanding shrew, and neatly sets the scene for her Part 2 aria “A Serpina penserete” in which she proves, through music of almost introverted beauty, that she is not so bad after all. The opera ends with a wonderful ensemble in which Umberto finally confesses his love and Serpina celebrates her victory.
Posted on: Fri, 04 Jul 2014 12:43:30 +0000
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