#BuffaVs.Seria!

[andrewtheconqueror-blog]

Blog No. 3

La Serva Padrona: One of the most successful comic stage works of the entire eighteenth century, Pergolesi's intermezzo La serva padrona was first produced in Naples at the San Bartolomeo theater on September 5, 1733. The function of such works was to serve as an entr'acte piece between the acts of a substantial opera seria -- in this instance Pergolesi's own Il prigioniero superbo, a work subsequently eclipsed by the fame of the intermezzo.In keeping with the characteristics of the genre, the plot and design of La serva padrona are extremely straightforward; there are only two short acts, and only three characters, one of whom is a mute male servant. The two singing parts are for a middle-aged man, Umberto, and his pert servant Serpina, both drawn from the traditions of commedia dell'arte. The plot concerns Serpina's tricking Umberto into marriage. Pergolesi's music clothes this inconsequential but naturalistic domestic drama in a rich vein of characterization and vitality; the simplicity of means employed would prove enormously influential in the development of comic opera. It is this feature that has led to the mistaken idea that Pergolesi was the founder of opera buffa -- a distinction that more properly belongs to one of his teachers, Leonardo Vinci. This opera is a full-length work with six (6) or more singing characters and was sung throughout. The plot is centered on ordinary people in the present day in contrast to the stories of myth or history in serious opera. The themes of Opera Buffa were mostly foibles of aristocrats and commoners, vain ladies, misery of old men, deceitful husbands/wives, and prostitutes. The plots of Opera Seria were somehow intense,serious, and grave but on the other hand, Opera Buffa plots were light.