Paul Terracini | conductor
Michelle Foreman | Director
Jenny Liu| soprano
Alexander Knight | bass
PERGOLESI La serva padrona
Penrith Symphony Orchestra presents an evening of opera that includes its first staged production of a complete small-scale opera, as well as a selection of arias and orchestral excerpts from the operatic repertoire.
The soloists are from The Sydney Conservatorium of Music Opera School, one of Australia’s leading training grounds for the vocal and stagecraft skills of future generations of opera singers. This performance will showcase the artistry of several of the finest young performers from this program.
Pergolesi’s La serva padrona (The Servant Turned Mistress) is a milestone in “opera buffa” or comic opera. It was originally written as an intermezzo to his more serious “opera seria” Il prigionier superbo (The Proud Prisoner). The two works were premiered together in Naples in 1733. The composer was just 23 years old.
Il prigionier superbo was unsuccessful in its day and did not find a lasting place in the operatic repertoire. La serva padrona, on the other hand, went on to enjoy fame throughout Europe long after Pergolesi’s premature death at the age of 26, and has come to be regarded as a pivotal work in the transition from Baroque to Classical opera.
With only two singing characters (a master and his maid) and one silent role (his servant), the 45-minute work is an archetypal farce, complete with the deception and disguise for which opera is renowned. The arrogant maid schemes to trick her master, an elderly bachelor, into marrying her so that she becomes the true mistress of the household. This light-hearted and engaging work is a masterpiece in miniature.
Complementing the Pergolesi on the program will be several of the most beautiful and popular arias from Classical and early Romantic operas by Mozart, Rossini and Donizetti. Love, comedy and melodrama will be the order of the day as these fine young operatic singers strut their stuff.