FULL LA SERVA PADRONA (Pergolesi) Pisa 2026 Alessandro Calamai, Elisa Dell’Olio, Annalisa Petracca

Information on the Performance

• Work Title: La serva padrona  
• Composer: Pergolesi Giovanni Battista  
• Libretto: Gennaro Antonio Federico    Libretto Text, Libretto Index
• Venue & Opera Company: Chiostro della Sapienza, Pisa, Italy  
• Recorded: June 24, 2026
• Type: Staged Opera Live
• Singers: Alessandro Calamai, Elisa Dell’Olio, Annalisa Petracca
• Conductor: Manfred Giampietro  
• Orchestra: Orchestra dell’Università di Pisa  
• Stage Director: Alessandro Calamai  
• Costume Designer:   

Information about the Recording

• Published by: Pisa University Orchestra  
• Date Published: 2026  
• Format: Streaming
• Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
• Subtitles: nosubs  

• ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE

  La guerra degli angoli sets out to explore two aesthetic worlds that may appear adjacent, yet are in fact profoundly different: the France of Jean-Baptiste Lully and Molière, and the Italy of Giovanni Battista Pergolesi and Gennaro Antonio Federico.

  The title points to a confrontation that does not unfold in the form of direct conflict, but rather on the subtler level of style, formal design, and theatrical conception. The image of the “corners” arises from the different organization of artistic space: in the French tradition everything is measure, symmetry, and rigorous construction; every gesture and every sound takes its place within a stable, almost geometric system that reflects the political and social order of the court of Louis XIV. In this sense, the “corners” refer to the frame, the boundary, the structure within which each element takes shape and acquires meaning. This image also evokes, in retrospect, what would later be known as the guerre des Coins, the Parisian controversy that, between 1752 and 1754, opposed the defenders of French music gathered in the coin du Roi to the supporters of Italian opera identified with the coin de la Reine, thus turning two “corners” of the theatre into two opposing visions of musical theatre.

  In the Italian tradition, by contrast, such corners seem to bend, dissolve, and at times even disappear altogether. Music adheres to action, follows the rhythm of speech and life, opens itself to the mobility of characters and the transformation of situations. The “war of the corners” thus becomes a metaphor for the passage from fixity to dynamism, from representation to life, from codified form to the energy of musical theatre.

  It is no coincidence that Giuseppe Mazzini himself juxtaposed French and Italian models as expressions of different cultural visions. In this sense, the project finds an ideal support in the Domus Mazziniana of Pisa, which we warmly thank for its attention and closeness to this initiative.

  The evening is guided by the figure of Coviello, servant and observer, who leads the audience through the events of Le Bourgeois gentilhomme and sheds light on their meaning. The spoken text, conceived especially for this occasion, does not overlap with the music, but rather aims to offer a unified interpretative key, serving as a mediation between listening and understanding.

  In the first half, devoted to Lully, the work will not be presented in its entirety — whose performance would require the expansive duration of a full theatrical afternoon — but through a selection of numbers performed instrumentally. This choice is not intended as a mere reduction, but rather as an attempt to reconstruct, through sound, the emotional and stylistic atmosphere of Lully’s theatre, evoking its scenic context without resorting to a complete staging.

  In the second half, with Pergolesi, voices enter the scene, and with them a different way of understanding musical theatre: more direct, more concrete, more closely connected with life and its conflicts.

  The “war of the corners” thus ultimately reveals itself as the passage from a static conception of art and society to a dynamic and process-oriented one. Within the geometric rigidity of the French court, individuals remain trapped in the roles assigned to them; within the vitality of Italian comic opera, they acquire instead the capacity to act and to alter their own destiny.

  It is in this movement — from design to life, from form to action, from frame to lived scene — that the meaning of this musical and theatrical journey is fulfilled.

  La serva padrona – Plot and meaning

  With La serva padrona, the framework changes radically. Pergolesi’s intermezzo presents Serpina, an intelligent and determined servant, and Uberto, her master, indecisive and unable to impose himself. Alongside them stands Vespone, a mute servant who is nonetheless essential to the development of the action.

  From the very beginning, the relationship between Serpina and Uberto is unbalanced: Serpina effectively dominates the household, while Uberto does nothing but complain, lacking the strength to reassert his authority. When he announces his intention to marry, hoping to restore domestic order, Serpina immediately turns this threat into an opportunity.

  With the help of Vespone, disguised as a false suitor, she creates a situation of pressure that forces Uberto to confront his own feelings. Fearing that he may lose Serpina or be forced to give her to another, Uberto eventually acknowledges his attachment and agrees to marry her.

  Unlike what happens in Le Bourgeois gentilhomme, here action produces a real transformation. The servant truly becomes the mistress, and the social relationship is reversed. The work does not merely represent an already established order, but stages its overcoming. In this sense, La serva padrona stands as an emblematic step toward a kind of musical theatre more closely aligned with life, its balances of power, and its transformations.

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