Giovanni Battista Pergolesi - La Serva Padrona (The Servant Mistress)

This opera is sung in Italian and fits the category of opera buffa. Opera buffa came from the intermezzi, which means "intermission" or entre act. These were designed to lighten up the otherwise heavy, significant dramatic musical presentation--filled with stuffy, unrealistic lofty characters--that was the mainstay of the evening.

La Serva Padrona is a one-act comedy filled with simple, tuneful melodies and musical dialogue called recitative. This musical dialogue was a new creation at the time, and without it our modern dramatic musical performances could not have been born. La Serva characters are designed to depict real people in funny, real-life situations.

This opera's charm and vitality have caused many revivals since it first opened in 1733. Every opera-producing group in the world, from college workshops to the Metropolitan, has presented this delightful work. Along with the chamber of orchestra accompaniment, the keyboard of choice to accompany such works was the predecessor to the piano, the harpsichord. Our production will feature the sweet, delicate sounds of this instrument, a welcome change for ears sometimes assaulted by strange, aggressive, caustic instruments that didn't exist in the days of Pergolesi.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Bastien und Bastienne

The second work on this program is Bastien und Bastienne, a light opera in one act by the young Mozart. The opera was commissioned by Dr. Anton Mesmer of Vienna, the inventor of mesmerism--a kind of hypnotism used at that time for curing people of all sorts of diseases. The subject matter deals with young love and reconciliation, and ends in praise to the beautiful weather and the arts of the magician Colas. This is a charming, innocent work for all to enjoy.
 

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